"can accompanists kill the music? Of course - so what?"
Says it all really.
As far as accompanying traditional singing is concerned, when an accompanist forgets that his/her job is to do just that - accompany, they can, and often do, sink a song deeper than the Titanic.
IMO, it is the function of an instrument to create a situation where a singer can interpret the song freely to an appropriate backdrop - get the balance wrong and it becomes either intrusive or unneccessary.
Jim Carroll