Very interesting. I probably should have clarified that I was talking about popular music and not niche genres. I actually think the effect is often less about sparseness bringing the composer's vision to light and more to do with the trend toward group songwriting.

For instance Beyonce had 72 songwriters [1] listed on her Lemonade album. Compare that with Madonna [2] (and other contemporaries) who often write their own music or co-write a song with one other person.

1. https://www.thedailybeast.com/does-beyonce-write-her-own-mus...

2. https://www.quora.com/How-much-of-her-music-does-Madonna-act...