I like your comments about labels and classifications. I think there's a real distinction between labels that come into general use because they're handy ways for readers to make rough-and-ready distinctions among kinds of stories ("space opera" would be one such) and labels that are the project of a group of writers and critics with an agenda (in our field, "New Weird" is the current leading example).

Sometimes the latter become the former, but not usually.

Genre and subgenre labels are necessary for a very simple reason: because readers don't want to walk into a bookstore to find all the books piled up in a giant pyramid in the middle of the floor. It's understandable that writers resist this. It's often productive that writers resist this. I certainly understand wanting to avoid the further clutter of cultish agenda-driven labels that don't even help readers.