Coming from someone who started doing self-taught web development myself...knowing algorithms and data structures doesn't stunt creativity anymore than knowing

Coming from someone who started doing self-taught web development myself...knowing algorithms and data structures doesn't stunt creativity anymore than knowing perspective would for a painter. They are tools that let you get a job done efficiently and a great deal of creativity can be used in figuring out how to apply and combine them. It further allows more opportunity for creativity because they allow you to operate on a higher level. Most algorithm and data structure knowledge in web development isn't so much, "now I have to implement algorithm x" but is instead, "Algorithm x would be helpful, oh look, there's a library for that." In all honesty though, in web development enough of these things are baked into the language that your code probably won't actually change very much. The languages and libraries are suited to the problem and all of the typical tasks are taken care of, in that regard. In my experience the day to day is not very changed in practice (though you do think of things differently), but occasionally you run into a problem that in the past would have seemed intractable or just not worth the trouble and realize it's actually not too bad. If you want to be a master in your field it is necessary, but like most aspects of true mastery, isn't needed for the most common utility work.