I agree, to some extent. But the other extreme -- rigid, mindless adherence to tradition for the sake of tradition --  isn't so great either. I suppose I look at it as a matter of degrees.

That's part of why I find The Crown interesting. You have this collection of people caught up in a perpetual wrestling match between tradition and personal desire, with excess on both sides. Some, like Edward, Margaret and Philip, lean toward gross self-indulgence, and some, like Churchill, Queen Mary and Tommy (Elizabeth's private secretary), toward a soul-numbing adherence to what they see as duty. And always with poor Liz caught in the middle.

As for me, I've long thought that life is like handling a shopping cart with a bad wheel. To get it to go straight down the aisle, sometimes you have to move it a little to the right and sometimes a little to the left. Just as long as you don't go too far either way and knock down a stack of canned goods.