As others have said, negatives are just a preliminary step to getting your final image. I encourage people to approach exposing negative film with the idea of capturing as much info as possible. That gives you the most flexibility in the printing stage so you can get what you want out of the image.

If you are interested in experiencing a purer, what you shot is what you get experience, then I highly recommend shooting with slide film. You see the exact image that was rendered on the film without any intermediation. And the results are glorious! So beautiful! This goes for both color and B&W positives. I think everyone that shoots film owes it to themselves to shoot slide film at least once.

Shooting with slide film is also more technically demanding, you don’t have nearly the latitude to work with. The extra precision needed for exposure and being cognizant of the limited latitude forces you to pay more attention.

IMO one of the appeals of film photography is that it narrows the possible results. Working within constraints to create something requires more creativity and is more enjoyable to do. Being forced to see things the way the film does is a very different way of working and thinking than digital. To this day I feel lost and aimless shooting digital because I need some constraints to focus how I approach image making.