I feel reassured by this:
Q. When it comes to guitar soloing, do you have a music theory element?
CHRIS POLAND: No, I have no idea what I'm playing. [Laughs] Not a clue.
My fingers seem to have started the process of learning to move instinctively to where the wanted note is. Which is how we sing: we hear where we need to be and a bunch of muscles we've only very vague control over take our voices there.
So it feels like some crossroads: learn the notes, and play the bass like playing the piano, the eyes reading the pitch, and the fingers converting that info? Or skip bothering to acquire that layer of consciousness, and just let the fingers follow the ears?
The first is probably a lot more useful, but the second sounds a lot more fun.