okay some people when they are creative are more results oriented; others are more discovery oriented. most advice for writing appeals to a person who is a mix of both but not people on either extreme. no point on the spectrum is better than the other. nor does any point on spectrum make you better or worse of a writer than any other.
it sounds like right now you are operating with a results oriented mindset and are conflicted on whether or not you want to switch to a more discovery oriented mindset or if you simply want the tools to handle a result oriented mindset
things sound bettter in your head because you have a whole ‘team’ in your head controlled by you doing everything exactly according to your taste. when you write; you only have the writer. you are expecting the writer to make up for the whole team. it doesn’t matter what artistic discipline you do; to make up for the whole team requires a lot of talent.
outside of that as a results oriented writer- certain things a member of the team in your head is doing might not be possible in the exact same way as a writer. you can’t replicate the process in your head on the page and get the same results on the page as you do in your head.
when you are a results oriented writer- what you are really doing is creative problem solving.
now for a discovery writer/ I know discovery can be used interchangeably with the term pantser. thats not what I mean here. a pantser can still be results oriented. they are in the same boat as results oriented. the difference is they don’t try to make it an exact match. or even care about matching or not matching at all. does that mean they are undisciplined no. for them they want their craft to be so strong it doesn’t matter what is in their head or what they end up writing on the page.
again neither is better than the other. and i expressed the two extremes.
i think right now for you (and correct me if I’m wrong you are having the following mindset)
"a writer should be able to convey exactly what is in their head without any creative problem solving. " this is impossible
every writer even discovery writers creatively problem solves.
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it doesn’t actually matter if you think in edits and revisions vs rough drafts. their is no rule. some writiers edit and revise as they go. others do each separately. etc etc.
rough draft is just so people don’t feel pressure
if that framing doesn’t work for you; don’t use it.
the reason people don’t recommend the editing/ revising as you write method is because it is a form of them putting pressure on themselves.
the key with the revising/ editing as you go method though is you still have to write stuff down. if your revising is only theoretical it doesn’t mean anything.
regardless of when you revise/ edit. a lot of people have this notion of writing is when you are creative and editing is when you are not. this is a false dichotomy. you are creative when you write/ you create when you write and you create when you edit.