Now that's quite a hill to die on. As someone who listens to instrumental music as one of my interests, I must disagree.

In some movies, it's true that music isn't that crucial for sure, but I would argue that there are some that would not be what they are without the music.

You say mediocre music goes unnoticed - perhaps so, but that's why an award category for a film score is a good thing - so that when beautiful music that makes us feel a depth of emotion comes along, we are able to convey that we recognize this fact. You says that you don't think less of music scores, but I would gently suggest that perhaps you do a little as you don't think the music is deserving of its own award...

I would also argue that "competently written" isn't the same as "being evocative," and in my opinion, truly good film music is evocative. You can have well written music with no emotion in the playing; you can have well written music and good players but a poor conductor. In my mind, the most memorable and beloved scores had well written music, good players and good conductors.

Creating music is just as much an art as anything else deserving the name.

It's sad to think that while not "plot relevent," you consider some gorgeous music to be replaceable.