I think an artist's responsibility is to try to get out of the way of the muse and nurture an inner dialog that (hopefully) is connected to the collective unconscious or (enter your favorite term here)so that it engenders real emotions in, resonates with or communicates itself to others, as well as informs one's self about one's self.

As regards sound etc. yeah, we should strive to honor what we produce by trying to be impeccable about it.

I think this is all equally true in any musical genre or any artistic endeavor.

Another part of that is to try to avoid pandering to taste i.e. - "I know of no recipe for success, but I know a recipe for failure: It is trying to please everyone" - some famous auther whose name escapes me.

Cheers.

As far as I know, we all have the responsiblity to do as much as we can to help the end product sound good, without interfering with each other.
Maybe that's just a way of restating the problem, though?