In the end, it's artist's perception that matters. It's like a test suite for a program, which ensures that the end result works regardless of how well you writ

In the end, it's artist's perception that matters. It's like a test suite for a program, which ensures that the end result works regardless of how well you write code (ignoring the maintenance and readability problems for a moment here). Whichever way you come up with a sound, it's your ear that will or will not allow it to pass through. Some particular creative tactics can help, though—by providing more diverse, unexpected input, and/or optimizing for quicker iteration (allowing to test more variations in less time). Tuning your guitar differently, or using generative methods, as in the original post, are two examples.