> The attitude of "there are no rules!" is espoused while artist after artist that produce music that we like are clearly following some type of ruleset, at least to some extent.

It's a craft, not a rigid system that you have to follow. What's called 'Rules' in music is more like patterns that have been found to sound good. For example, the famous 'Rule of the Octave' is a pattern based originally on playing thirds and sixths ("first inversion chords" if you want to phrase it that way) over a "walking" baseline. But the rule is far from fixed, and almost immediately the basic pattern using thirds and sixths was altered to use thirds and fifths ("root position chords") on the tonic and dominant degrees. Then the other chords were altered in turn, giving each bass scale degree a sonic identity of its own, with ascending and descending, major and minor varieties etc. Thus what literally started as a simple and basic rule has become incredibly complex. This just shows how a craft can evolve to become more interesting; rigid, foolproof rules cannot. And the "rule of the octave" is a tiny part of music as a whole (though it's pretty foundational, all things considered); but guess what, other "rules" work the exact same way!