re: What's the point of an orchestra conductor?

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Not to mention, that many professional musicians do not practice the specific pieces often. Unless you are in a major city, that is not paying the bills. The have a couple of rehearsals and then they go. So they are really relying on the conductor in those situations. And I know this because I lived with a semi-professional cellist at one point.

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Exactly. A classic example of this is Don Giovanni. Mozart composed the overture to that piece the night before it premiered. They didn't have time to rehearse it. The orchestra was seeing those notes for the first time the night they played it.