I think knowledge work perhaps is more similar to being a composer rather than a musician.

Musicians performing existing pieces add touches of nuance but are penalized if deviating too much from the original.

A composer on the other hand should be adding significantly new components to the existing body of works and is measured on how much they are deviating from the existing body of works.

A sports analogy (although a bit weaker) would be Olympic/NBA/NFL/MLB/FIFA sports which have known rules and limits versus X-game/RedBull type sports which are pushing boundaries of non-existent rules.

Tech activities more similar to athletes/musicians that benefit from repetition would probably be like timed competitive leetcode or competitive Excel tournaments[1].

[1] Financial Modeling Worldcup https://fmworldcup.com/excel-esports/