Not a question of versus, but for practical reasons of an universal language without barrier. Without words, precise meanings, it has better potentials to remove prejudices (political, cultural, social, national) and provide wider scope for artistic expressions and interpretations. Although how it works in reality is certainly debatable, especially the average audiences (and probably some of the judges?) just aren't that musically sensitive? The fact our music vocabularies are very much conditioned by our upbringings culturally, socially and nationally, so it is very possible, something sound beautiful to one, some may discriminate; and that something that is artistically credible, may sound like an irritation to another.
People can scruple over artistry (including how the music is played) by calling it 'subjective' (not entirely true), but in reality it does take a well versed and even sophisticated type of audience to appreciate and know what is good art. And even those who are widely versed will often disagree at times - just check out all the arts reviews by seasoned critics. Certainly, any pieces of work's true artistic value are determined through time, and it is not always recognizable by the so called COP 'standards' value. Itself - a false fluid system (although less fluid than 6.0) according to whatever 'raison d'etre' it claim to satisfy of its time (include politics).
I am probably among the minority who dares to suggest there are just too many contrived performances at expenses of pretty inoffensive music, it often mislead Joe and Jane average who became convinced the skater is lyrical just because they like the 'background' music chosen or rather the 'idea' of it.
While pretty inoffensive music doesn't disturb me, it is the lack of the authenticity or connection with the music and expressions that often distract me from technically competent performances. Personally, I am greatly annoyed by contrivances that has no artistic value scores highly in the PCS because it claim to satisfy whatever current COP system du jour - it completely misses the purpose of what figure skating should be about; which are great expressions using the entire body, heart and soul on ice - with real purpose to attain new artistic and physical heights and breakthrough human limitations.
To those who are musically aware, I can only compare to piano competitions. 10 high level pianist in a piano competition, is it the one who played all the notes exactly on time according to the music score wins? Or is the one who played with great original expressions and conviction who shows a masterful command of their instrument who made a mistake wins? High level judging would certainly able to differentiate a competent performance to a great performance. It is the philosophical underpinning of why we do everything that we do. So we can be like robots or so we can have soul?
To bring it back to figure skating. Sport is a human science, and as such it should greatly satisfy humanity subjects. It is these rare moments of artistic (including music as an integrated element rather than a backdrop) and physical synergy with clarity working together that kept us glued to see if these incredibly rare moments of perfection can be attained during these most crucial moments. Otherwise we might as well be watching gymnastics or show jumping.
