I think we are in agreement. Let me use a metaphor. Details are the spices of the literary world. They can't be the base ingredient, that has to be the story, but details can enhance and modify the base ingredient. The goal of spices is 3 things 1) to add a type of flavor that the main dish did not have. 2) to enhance the already existing flavor 3) to cause the mixing of flavors, for example bitter sweet, sweet and sour, sharp and tangy, etc.
I am not dissing details, just reminding you details are not an exception for a good story.
On the subject of details and trainwrecks, I read the first 10 books of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I then gave up and tried twice to reread and then get to the later stories of the series. How bad is the remaining WoT series under Brandon Sanderson's pen. I here it is better than what Jordan was doing, but Jordan had a trainwreck every since Book 6, and in hindsight books 1 to 6 were not as good as I remember them as a teenager.