This has been one of the most interesting things I read for a long while. For me I think I fall in to all four camps . Probably 2&4 mostly. I m a keen guitarist and in pursuit of tone for a long while. I ve owned many different guitars each with their own particular voice. To my wife she can barley hear the difference between them but to me it's obvious . If the artist has struggled as much as I have with selecting the right instrument and amp settings to get the tone they want then I don't want my hi fi system to change the tone of it. You wouldn't go to see the mona lisa and view her through orange tinted sunglasses.
The other thing I want from my system is to convey the music but not get in the way of it. I suppose my plan is to build a system that shows off how good my music is not to play music to show off how good my system is .