I had another thought about this topic,
If we do the exercise I suggest above, when we ask students to settle on a “final answer,” what are the guidelines for it? I think any guidelines we could impose other than “What’s your favorite?” can stifle creativity because the student starts to look for the “best” solution based on the educator’s guidelines, rather than exercising personal will to choose for themselves.
Why it’s important to exercise personal will as opposed to follow external guidelines might be a high level meditation on art. I’ve only recently had this thought so I’m not yet so terribly familiar with that I can make an argument. But I think it’s pretty seriously related.