Traditions can be temperamental things. No sooner does one generation discard them as irrelevant than the next picks them up as rebellious. But sometimes people ignore the traditional simply because its convenient.
My first children’s story was written in 1982 and I was told at the time it was too like C S Lewis, and this was seen as a negative. I thought it a compliment but in the world of publishing what I was being told was simply ‘ we have a C S Lewis and he sells very well and we don’t want someone else stealing his sales’. Years ago I read about a French singer who looked too like Piaf and could never get any work.
We tend to think talent comes singly but it doesn’t but the more there is the more work the salesmen have to do to make money so they keep similar talent down. It’s been done for years and will go on being done because people are not honest.
What hurts though for the artist is they never say this, they never admit it, they tell you, you are not good enough. They even denigrate your ability. Such people are, of course, never slow to steal your main ideas and sell them onto their ‘in house’ talent.
Originality in business does not exist.