To me music makes more sense if it has a setting, and for that reason, I have a strong bias toward live recordings. I will even tolerate a lower quality of sound of the music as a trade-off for having it presented in a venue.
Some musicians are just more entertaining live than they are in the studio. For example, Sarah Bareilles's studio work strikes me as ho-hum, but I enjoy her live performances.
On the other hand, sometimes the studio cut is better. For example, Dark Side of the Moon is iconic as a studio album. Live, it's not a single work; it's a collection of songs.
Susan Tedeschi's performance of Angel From Montgomery on the studio album Just Won't Burn is knock-it-out-of-the-park excellent. Probably the best performance of that song ever recorded. Certainly the best I have heard. She has also recorded it live a couple of times. She just doesn't do as good of a job in the live cuts.
So like so many things in audio, it depends, even though I am sympathetic to the OP's point.
