Too much pattern means it's easy to write and easy to read. That's the safe, dead, narrow way to approach fiction, and it's safe, dead, and narrow for writer, reader, and publisher alike. The fact of the matter is that we're all going to die and we've got one life to get it right. So one really has no choice but to go for broke at all times in all things. For the writer, pioneering efforts which identify and cultivate one's vision are the only efforts worth spending an iota of time on.
Life is too precious to waste on doing what's safe.
But he continued to grow. MOBY DICK was a publishing disaster when it appeared. I'm sure Melville knew that and understood that he had done the right and worthy thing in producing it. Not at all. Pioneering is always done through maps left by previous pioneers, even maps drawn by one's earlier self.