So many ideas to which to respond and so little space.
To the point about which songs last and which don't -- obviously the audience is the final judge.
As for being deliberately aware of your influences as your writing a song, I'm not sure that it's even possible to write a song while you're carrying that much mental baggage. If I've understood Stephen right he's talking about what sorts of techniques he uses to making the needed judgement calls to CRAFT a song as opposed to just writing it down. He seems to be using Stan Rogers as the best example of those techniues.
lastly, songwriters will always be thier own worst critics. They are the last people you should ask about which of thier own songs are any good.