For me it’s a bit of both, i often stumble onto a riff or chord progression by pure accident whilst noodling and think that sounds like so n so then i usually take it from there but as an old fart (60) who hasn’t been playing long on electric i’m still very much a beginner, but i played Bass for quite some time so know a few bits, but since picking up guitar last year i’m really enjoying it and my wife said she’s noticed a huge improvement which is encouraging.
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This was a good read man! For me is when I want to learn a live version of a song and there isn’t any tabs at all. I just downloaded Track Studio just now. I’ll play with it later today.
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I’m subscribed to Ultimate Guitar Tab and their pro version of the tabs is exactly how you described it. It does make you want to give up on a song since you’re going back and forth with other versions to see if you’re doing it right or if the execution is correct.
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Recently, transcribing the Gray Stone Getaway loop backing track for the collaborative video made me realize I’m not as bad as I thought at transcribing from ear 
. Of course, transcribing is one thing… Playing at the right speed is a completely different thing 
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