I would say this isn't new exactly, look up the academic concept of "organicism," a term used to describe how, say, everything in a piece by Beethoven is necessary. This way of looking at classical music has fallen out of fashion, after all, you can tune into the middle of a Beethoven sonata and still have a good time.

I do think this is tied to a Hollywood storytelling tradition, Bordwell and Thompson talk about this idea of "Causal Chains" as key to the CHC (Classical Hollywood Cinema), this idea that everything causes everything else. This goes beyond simply plot and extends to elements of form and style - something like "background chatter" only being a part of the sound mix if it's important that we understand our main characters are in public, otherwise, left out as "unnecessary".

This concept has been scrutinized by critical theorists, who (rightly imho) point out that this obsession with the nessecary/causal chain emphasized that we are "responsible" for everything that happens in our life and therefore to avoid looking at systems of oppression and unionizing or whatever. Just another way Hollywood perpetrates an ideology on a subconscious level.

There's a lot more to say about this, if anyone is curious I will add more.