I feel that people not following the wording kills a lot if the experience, obviously the DM is god and makes final calls but, some stuff kills it. I remember playing with one guy that wanted every fight to be epic but he didn't really understand the wording in the monster manual so he would constantly throw huge battles at us and underpower them or just play them weird (like dragons that aren't smart despite their int score). Before ever seeing level 15 our characters could have taken out God's with the gear and crap he had given us.

Fun memories though so I guess it really doesn't matter, it's all about how you like to play.