The question is: do you want the complete image to be sharp, and have every detail in the shadows ?

For a long time this was quite important to me, but I have seen my style changing over the years.
Some views need to be completely sharp (except when using soft focus lenses). But I don't find this a must anymore.

A landscape can have a soft foreground and a sharp main subject, or some shadows may be complete dark. I find this more natural as we see this with our eyes.

Then you have of course the impression of the artist who deliberate places thing out of focus, or creates harsh images in black & white, or a shallow depth but this is something completely different.

I see these questions pop-up on a regularly base in the forums so I'm curious, so do you go for perfection or more the natural way ?