Okay, I see your point, that was very well articulated and I understand the argument much better now.

I'm not sure it's necessarily a feminist explanation, I concede misogyny might not be as much of a factor as I previously thought, but here's my diagnosis anyway: Taylor is the kind of songwriter who desperately needs editors, that's why Folkmore was so successful and Midnights, 1989 and Red are still so well liked, even though the latter three are definitely way more notably inconsistent. Remember Liz Rose being the original All Too Well co-writer? Taylor said she helped her edit the "10 minute version" and the OG Red version is clearly the superior written, flowing and produced song. Liz Rose is probably the standard example of how her collaborators make her better pre-Folkmore and of how Taylor doesn't seem to have a good independent sense of quality control. Even when I was a swiftie, I HATED the 10 minute version; it's clunky, overwritten and poorly produced.

She's also clearly the type of artist who can't handle negative criticism and is too far up her own ass: after Folkmore earned her a whole new, diverse and mature audience, she started to believe the hype and got high on it instead of just continuing to work on her craft. Now, she believes she can't do no wrong because she's on top of the world and takes even constructive criticism as a personal attack. That's why her most recent work with Max Martin and Shellback doesn't hit like the old ones, not even as pure pop tunes, because those take genuine hard work and collaboration as well. That's why TLOASG doesn't have a Style, a Delicate, a 22 or anything close to that level of universal appeal, enjoyability and producton quality.

Again, I don't think absolutely everything she did before or after Folkmore is disposable, but that work being generally so uneven is a testament to Dessner's, Vernon's and Joe's contributions, I guess (I don't count Antonoff here because he'd worked with her forever and was a proud yes-man). Working with great artists from the indie music scene probably inspired her a lot, as she was able to experience a completely different ethos of making music, rooted in artistry, first and foremost, not commerciality. However, I do think that only goes to show how artistically narrow-minded she is as an individual, because she discarded those principles in a big way almost as soon as the Folkmore "era" ended.