part of the skill of cooking is learning why a dish working. rather than tasting some and going "this tastes bad", you should be thinking "what is not working here?" too much or too little salt? did you overcook the meat? do some of the flavors clash? a major skill in cooking is being able to identify why your meal didn't turn out how you wanted it to, and then hopefully finding out how to fix or avoid that.

i think following the recipe to the letter can weaken that skill because you just kinda uncritically follow the steps in front of you

I use recipes more as guidelines or inspiration.