Also I have to agree with Liquid that sound quality and compositional quality are not independent. They can be taken independently to an extent, but you don't have actual music until you have both written and performed it, at which point the two things stop being independent and start working together quite closely. A good composer takes the medium into account. That's not really to say that I think Uematsu made a mistake with the opera scene, because like I said, he was pushing the limits of the format and that's a fine thing to do, I just don't think it worked.
It's definitely true that many composers take their medium into account when writing (especially when it comes to chiptune, where limitations are an inherent part of the process), but there's still a natural distinction between sound quality in compositional quality. So, for example, Para might dislike the song in-game, but rather enjoy a live rendition; this, to me, indicates that his problem rests more on the limitations of the software (assuming that the renditions are similar). For me, however, even a fully-orchestrated version of the song wouldn't change the sequence of the notes in the melody, the cheeseball lyrics, or the lacking harmony, so I'd still end up disliking it all the same.
I could take your favorite song and completely ruin it just by changing the instruments, timbre selection is definitely part of composition
Absolutely. I mean, have you seen Mario Paint renditions of songs? But all this tells us is that any composition requires some threshold of sound quality for its compositional quality to be fairly represented. The notes are the notes, no matter what plays them, and that is the problem I have with the Opera Scene (on top of its lyrics, placement in the story, and crazy disproportionate praise).
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