One of the factors that informs some of the advice you receive here is that a fair few of us have helped/taught/mentored a number of beginners.
Once you have done that a few times, you get a feel for where the frustrations arise for the inexperienced.
A lot of the advice you see here about systems and repeat-ability arises from that desire to help people get past or avoid the frustrations and get to the point where they can concentrate on the fun and satisfaction.
I don't know if you ride a bicycle, but if you do I'd like to use an analogy.
When you start riding a bicycle, you have to work hard at doing it right, or you will either fall over or go where you don't want to go (sometimes at a higher speed than you ought to).
Once the process of riding a bicycle becomes more automatic, you can concentrate on things like the scenery, the route, the feel of the breeze. And you can also, if you wish, explore more challenging or inventive uses of the bicycle, like tricks and racing.
In other words, once you systematize the core, the creativity and the fun comes to the forefront. It also makes mundane uses of the bicycle like commuting much more practical.
I would never equate the technical advice you have received here with a quest for perfection. It is, instead, an attempt to help you achieve good quality, when you want it, without frequent failure or too much effort.
Those of us who recommend a stop bath do so because we believe it makes it easier to get good, reliable, dependable results.
The creativity and experimentation can really flow when your prints don't unexpectedly turn brown.