Grade school has never been kind to genuine writers. It reminds me of SAT essays that favored formulaic writing, because guess what: the grading criteria were formulaic!
I think grading in general can be stymying for students' motivation and creative drives.
Being able to write in a formulaic manner is a skill though. Not being able to write properly is not great for communication.
I had fun with those because they only care about the quality of the writing not the content so I would make sure that none of my facts or references were real.