Thanks for all the input! I truly learned a lot from this. I hope more and more opinions will be shared on this thread.
1) Based on my current experience and based on what I've observed from others. However I'm certain that this is just a temporary belief and someday there will be a breakthrough that will bust this myth IMO.
2) Yes I am. Personally, I haven't really seen/heard from-scratch bass singers that are trained either by SLS or any methods out there that achieved tenor-sounding high notes like those of Pavarotti, Steve Perry, etc.
Very well said. This is the dilemma that I'm talking about--getting basses to have usable range up there. In today's contemporary music, the men's usable range is mostly found (sadly) on the passagio (approx. G4-Tenor High C)