all fictional maps with a real world setting are automatically inferior to fantasy maps (which seems to be what you're suggesting with your violin analogy).

They're not, but you're limited in what you can do. Violin is great, but how about some cello and piano?

When you can literally do anything you want and you're working completely from your imagination, It's really easy to screw things up.

Not in my experience, since there's no way you could screw things up (I used to be an avid mapmaker for a different game, Heroes 3 of Might and Mage).

Things are becoming fascinating when you tell your stories Жұқтыру. Asides Warlight mapmaking is totally different. If use my imagination as a subject then I'll screw everything up immediately. Let's stand I moderately cannot even grab my pencil to draw a ressembling fantasy object. The scratch on my paper I'll get will be a badly drawed mouse creature anyway. I once showed one of my sketches to my friends and they thought I was drawing E.T. but I actually was drawing an owl!

I never would've thought I would make it this far honestly. I go all be I can be, I guess? My lack of imagination prevents me from finishing the galaxy map on which I already have spent hours and hours.

They're not, but you're limited in what you can do. Violin is great, but how about some cello and piano?

Again, I don't feel that these are the sorts of limitations, but rather a fair comparison would be being forced to use at least piano, Cello, and violins rather than having the choice of only using violins.

Using a real world framework doesn't force you to do less, it only forces you to have certain elements in your map, which as I've already pointed out isn't a bad thing.

Not in my experience, since there's no way you could screw things up (I used to be an avid mapmaker for a different game, Heroes 3 of Might and Mage).

It's much easier to just draw some crazy shapes that simply don't work for warlight games when you're working completely from your imagination. Sure, it's possible to have a better map, but it's also possible to have a really, really bad map if you just draw it yourself.