Delius who wrote something along very similar lines almost a century ago as follows:
Music that needs "explanation, that requires bolstering up with propaganda, always arouses suspicion that(,) if left to stand on hits own merits, it would very quickly collapse and be no more heard of" (I believe that this was in an essay entitled At the Crossroads in the very first edition in 1920 of Philip Heseltine's short-lived music magazine The Sackbut).
Thanks for the pointer to that essay Mr. H! It is not available in the Internet Archive, but I will keep looking out for it!