Agreed to all of that. I guess we're sort of saying the same thing from different directions. Or if not, I guess I'm saying that I'm more flexible and accommodating on artists' wishes. I'm not as hung up on an artist taking advice from a label, for example, or even writing a song for a purposes (i.e., an anthem, or a single). It's still the artist's choices that go into it, and there are too many examples - Paranoid, for one - where songs that SEEM "compromised", whether because they were "hits" or they seem dashed off or they seem contrived, and yet they stand the test of time.
I know I bring him up all the time, but Springsteen is an example here: "Blinded By The Light" was an exercise for him, and yet it's one of his most enduring songs (and his only Billboard No.1, though not by him).