re: Being a musician vs being a "guitar player"

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I know chord progressions, chords, scales, can put together arrangements, can pick up on the structure of a song while listening to it, and the like. But I hesitate saying I'm a "musician", instead just refer to myself as "guitar player".

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My personal opinion here is you're a musician.

I think of myself as a guitar player. I know the basics of music and theory but I go off of feel 95% of the time. What I play generally won't be "right" but I go with what fits the best.

I've always considered myself a musician, who mainly plays guitar, but am serviceable on bass, drums, and backing vocals. At 50, I've been performing live for 35+ years. Whether bluegrass on a porch, outlaw country in a bar, or comping with a big band...I just love to play. Practice tomorrow evening, then our first gig since shut-down next weekend.

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Going to color the cloth to match the carpet in the shining.

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That's a cool idea. Do you think many people will make the connection without being told?

Rhythm guitarist or a musician

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Simple. One is a creator and the other is a mimic.

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This is a great debate topic. For me, creating meant that I was doing something that was in my wheelhouse. It meant that I used chords and progressions that I was familiar with and that I liked.

Things became more difficult when I sat down and tried to "mimic" what someone like Benard Purdie was doing on AJA.

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A musician is anyone who can reliably express some human emotion through musical sound.

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Id say he was a good example of that. There was a technical talent gap between him and Randy Rhoads, but he found a way through a complex simplicity

I had a band when I was in college. It was 3 musicians and a drummer.

I think I see the line you are trying to draw.
I think the “line” gets drawn between the guy who can play what’s been played, and the guy who can play what he wants because he thinks it sounds better than what has been done before, I.e. the guy who “feels it” rather than “learns it” or “knows it” when you are playing with a group in particular. Nothing about that prevents you from doing it how it’s been done before or playing by yourself.
Could be as little as liking a certain suspended chord where a major went or something along those lines.
The other thing that I’ve always sort of thought goes along with the difference between the two is the ability to adapt to what’s happening. Ex: a rhythm guitar player struggles when the singer repeats the chorus at the end of the song or the guy taking a ride goes four bars too long because it doesn’t belong there. A musician playing rhythm guitar knows to keep playing and doesn’t make the change back to the verse because the song is alive, and you just keep it going like it should go, regardless of whether it’s been done before.

My guitar teacher told me as soon as you pick up an instrument with the serious intent to play it, you're a musician. You may not be a good musician yet, but you're a musician.