It sounds (like a few other comments in this thread) like you didn't want to write a dissertation - you wanted to write a document more broadly communicating yo

It sounds (like a few other comments in this thread) like you didn't want to write a dissertation - you wanted to write a document more broadly communicating your thesis topic to a wider audience. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but if you think you would ruin it by turning it into a document written for (and to suit the needs of) the thesis committee, then it's not a dissertation.