To be honest I think the former goes for a lot of the writers from the semi-recent past... I guess the constraints of a corporate-owned book feel too castrating for some creators. Otherwise excellent writers like Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction are usually light years ahead of what they created on Uncanny X-Men.
I think it's a different scenario if writers are given the kind of leeway Jonathan Hickman seems to have been afforded, to really put their stamp on the books and not work within a pre-determined narrative.