Learning to read music just gives you some formal and consistent tools with which to learn and share music. If you are only playing by ear and always independently creating the music, you definitely don't need to learn how to read sheet music. I think this probably matches well with the big shift in general learning from textbooks to resources like YouTube. It is limited though; could you imagine a symphony orchestra working with a composer if no one knew how to read music?

I'm not sure why you equate the more formal techniques of music with a lack of joy. This seems a false distinction like ranking oral storytelling traditions over the written word. Sometimes the most passionate lovers of a topic seek to understand how it works, which typically requires deep mastery of the theory and foundational concepts. You're welcome to improvise but that's a very different approach. Ironically the best improvisors often have the deepest technical competence; art still has rules and some things work better than others.