Of all the roles in music and across all genres, I can't think of a role in music more prestiges than being the worlds best pianist. Its like the royal position in music.

One can well think so. Just that Pierre Fournier, David Oistrakh or Django Reinhardt and  a few others would disagree, maybe :-)? But I certainly get your point, the piano is so wonderful, and even if we'd never agree to "X is the best", it is indeed wonderful if Martha Argerich or Clara Haskil or all the great really master their instrument and some parts of the world wide repertoire.
Just that I, reading more about how pianos were built now, tend to think so many are just as important, and their position is royal too. Think of we had a glimpse of a view who in history thought about building and later playing such strange instruments like "pianos"...

There also is a wonderful video  Bruno Monsaingeon made about and with Svjatoslav Richter. You can find, at least if you live outside Germany^^, as GEMA of course doesn't allow it, parts of the wonderful film at youtube. But the 2 DVDs are so wonderful, I just can recommend them for buying.

What will the 21st century bring? I hope virtual pianos (read: Pianoteq) will get better and better, but they still need to be played by real human beings just like in the 20th century (and earlier).

Anyway I can recommend every young pianist to listen to those old masters.

Thanks again.