I really like your post.Definitions of words like "gunsmith" are often subjective. I personally agree with the statement that a gunsmith is a specialized machinist, while a parts changer is really an armorer.
Just like "real deal" machinist, gunsmiths are indeed a dying breed. If you have the knowledge and skills, you can make more money and have fewer headaches working as a tool and die machinist than a gunsmith, as everyone working in the firearms industry is under attack and faces the potential of being demonized, demonetized, sued, arbitrarily prosecuted, or legislated into oblivion.
An example of how ugly it can be:
One very capable and popular pistol smith who used to do 1911 to 2011 conversions back when they first became a thing (which is serious machine shop work), got caught up in the first AWB and overnight was unable to ship finished (or nearly finished) conversions back to his customers without commiting a felony. These people had paid thousands of dollars and were obviously pissed off and his name was dragged through the mud and he was sued. My understanding is that he pretty much lost everything trying to make his customers whole. Then to add insult to injury, the ATF shifted the subjective line betwixt "gunsmithing" and "manufacturing", and went after the guy for "manufacturing" without a Type 7 FFL. The "deal" offered him to avoid prosecution was to surrender his FFL. So he lost his career to boot.
As a mechanical engineer who knows his way around the machine shop and has a decent mill and lathe, I dabble in hobby pistol smithing (only for myself) and would very much like to do it for hire on a small scale as a retirement gig. But everytime I weigh the pros and cons, the cons stack up much higher.
Give it another ten years and there may be fewer than 100 'real' gunsmiths left in the entire country. I doubt there are 500 now.
And, yes. Legal issues are always lurking, that is why I do not offer help to friends, or just about anybody. I do not share reloading components or "loads". The landscape is far too dangerous.