Music theory is just that, a theory. It's a set of observations made from music humans arbitrarily label good and bad. So why do so many people treat it like music law and insist all songs need to follow the same ideals?
i actually don't think anyone treats it that way. the weird thing is that i think a lot of people assume that it's treated that way, even though no one really does. sometimes it actually means just learning to read. no one's telling anyone what to write or create, just how to write it down or at least attempt to