Yes, indeed. For instance, the creation of bebop in jazz. Of course Bird could only do this by a comprehensive understanding of the existing rules and seeing deeper.
> creativity is a proxy for a kind of self-expression that is not bound by any rules, logic, or structure
I do not find this to be the case. Art is full of structure, rules and logic. When artists "break" the rules, it usually means they been able to operate using underlying rules, and understand well the rules they break.