I find myself wondering why you bothered to write so long a text about something which you claim to hold in contempt. To the viewer, unless steeped in art history, an image is what it is, not how it was made.
College undergraduate criticism about narrative ignores the fact that life seldom follows a narrative structure, but "just happens". People die, pointlessly; there is almost never a grand punchline. Life and careers follow pinball trajectories, with no celestial author guiding their elegant disposition.