Jazz listening: Is it about the music? Or is it about the sound?

I lost my interest in mainstream jazz a while ago, but got turned on to so-called spiritual jazz a few years ago, starting with the Strata-East catalog- some amazing stuff there, and a lot of what I listen to and chase these days are in this more offbeat jazz area that is not so cacophonous to be free jazz but comes pretty close sometimes- Pharaoh Sanders, Cecil McBee are two of the great players among many. A lot of the records were originally released during a low point in vinyl in the U.S. but they still sound good. What is now limiting is price- some of the OGs are nutty money or pretty hard to find, let alone in first tier condition. I don’t know that there is a common thread to this sub-genre, since the term is applied loosely to a lot of private label and small label post bop jazz that uses eastern or African influences. Some of it is fabulous, sonically. One that was mainstream was Alice Coltrane’s Ptah, the El Daoud, on Impulse- now very hard to find in mint- condition and pricey even for beater copies- recorded in the family studio in their basement in Long Island. Ron Carter on that one. Lots to discover and learn. There is a movement among current younger musicians to tap into this vein too, so from relatively inexpensive to collector’s pieces, you can spend a fair amount of time doing a deep dive. Even the records Nathan Davis released on his return to the U.S. are pretty rare and made on some of the thinnest vinyl I’ve ever seen, but sound good. Usually pretty simple combos, very little in the way of string fills or heavy-handed production- some of the material, like Horace Tapscott- is fairly large ensemble playing. Worth checking out if you’ve lost interest in jazz or want to take a different path. Most all of it is attributed to Coltrane’s A Love Supreme as inspiration.

@mijostyn--don’t listen to Ornette C. much- the record I have to hand featuring him is like 4 people playing 5 different songs simultaneously, but I can look at some of his other works, along with Mr. Threadgill (same last name as a old time club owner down here that was Janis Joplin’s sort of shelter from the storm in her early days). Check out Milt Ward and Virgo Spectrum, track title: "The Foreigner," which is up on YouTube. Sadly the record goes for big bucks when you can find a copy-- it is going to be reissued soon. Cecil McBee is on it, along with Carlos Garnett. Another favorite is Jothan Callins, Winds of Change- private label. Callins played bass and worked with Sun Ra, but here he is playing trumpet, Cecil M on bass (again).
I guess the space I’m in is between complete cacophony and melody- I don’t mind excursions that are out there, but I do like to come back to a riff, a melody or something familiar to ground the piece. It’s all worth a listen, at least once. And some of the less accessible stuff I will come back to; I guess it’s all relative in terms of your tolerance for "out thereness." By degrees, I guess my palate for more wild, untethered material has expanded through listening and exposure. Sun Ra is pretty beyond my normal range of stuff, some of the free jazz players from the West Coast scene also played more spiritual jazz or soul jazz (to put a label on it): Nate Morgan was a very strong piano player who was loosely affiliated with Horace Tapscott, but released a few records on his own (in addition to doing pop work to pay the bills, like Chaka Khan).
I find the back stories, and history of these guys (and women, there, more blues than jazz though there are some strong players today) fascinating.

@jyprez- this "thing of ours" is very gear-centric and about sound. Ideally, it should be in service of the music, but I know there were times that I got caught in the web of listening for sonic spectacularity, it's a trap in some ways if one confines their listening to stuff that sounds "good" on their system. I used to have "demo" records that would show off my system. I hit a point where I was tired of that kind of listening and just started to explore music as an adventure. I can read and play (my chops are hardly what they were) but somehow, after years of classical and a love of early hard rock (I'm a big fan of what I'd call biker bar stuff, the heavier the better, kind of early post psych), I've settled into this soul-jazz groove that is very rich with talent and recordings, and satisfies me musically. I actually managed to avoid hearing "Dreaming with Dean" (or whatever it is called) for a few years until I got caught out during a visit to someone's place-- -very exotic system and when he cued that record, along with other audiophile warhorses-- listening for something that had gone astray in the system, I immediately recognized it, ending my run of Dean-free music. :)
In my view, listen to whatever you want, for whatever reason --- who am I to dictate listening choices? I just hit a wall of same old at some point and wanted out of the audiophile "approved" box- the stuff that gets continually reissued because it sells.