Beyond Just Intonation

after 17 Years of doing music in just intonation, microtuning, xenharmonics, i have felt as i have hit a border with that approach alone. i eventually started to abandon Just Intonation in my music works, and employed the 12 TET system again - shame on me. i didn't think much about it; it happened naturally; and it felt necessary.
in the end this led to a realisation, and a new theory of mine. it's just a new theory; i haven't sonically tested it much yet; so it could be scrapped in a while; or it could hold true.
What i realised was this: maybe music is exactly organised in a way i always rejected; which is, that intervals are grouped in categories such as sixths, fifths, thirds and so on. i always tried to get rid of this system; it seemed so traditional; so western, and non-sensical. why should a pure interval of 5/4 and 5/6 and 6/7 called be a "third"? it seemed to me to be completely different individuals, with different ratios; only grouped together because it was traditionally done so in western music.
but now i realised, there might be actually more to it. so i am trying to devise a system, in which actually these "intervals" are the important factor, and *not* the tunings, may they be just, equal, or mean etc. well this only half the truth - i think they are half important.
so i am thinking now, that the harmonic structure of a song, of a melody actually lies in these intervals; the primes, the seconds, the thirds and so on, and the tuning, in this aspect, is not so important. at first, at least. yet, at the same time, it is also very important. but more of this later.
this means, when i come up with a melody, i think of how i use primes, thirds, fifths, and not the intervals, the tuning directly; it is not so much a factor if these are equal tuned, or just tuned, or different and so on.
from one viewpoint - but there is also another viewpoint. this might sound paradoxical, but i think both - the interval groupings as i mentioned - and the actual tuning, are very important, each in their own field. there are two parts to the melody, harmonies, structure of a song, a piece, and one is the groupings as i mentioned, and the second is the "tuning" then again. the german word for "tuning" is "stimmung", which also means "mood" or "emotion", and i think this holds some truth. the groupings lie the framework for the melody, but the "stimmung", the tuning, adds the mood. so a minor key has a different "mood" than a major key (although i reject the - boring - notion that minor would mean "sad" and major "cheerful"), and a JI key or scale has a wholly different mood altogether. this may seem very basic and logical, but for me it was a breakthrough.
okay, as i said, so far this may seem basic, or not so interesting, or not as important yet. i think it is better to illustrate this by showing the practical implications.
one thing, is, as i said, the consequence, that i do not care so much about the actual interval, the just ratio, the actual ratio anymore. a second is a second no matter if it is 9/8 or 16/15 or 17/16. a fifth stays a fifth no matter if it is 2/3 or 5/7 or 5/8. this is something i haven't done before; i calculated each interval carefully before. and i never would have considered an interval with a different ratio to be actually the same.
but there is also another important consequence. just or pure intervals themselves are suddenly not necessary anymore. the tuning adds the "mood". so i do not have to use just intervals; they add a certain mood, but i can also use other tunings, other scales. a just interval adds a wholly different mood to a melody, and it is thus important wether one uses it or not; but it does not change the underlying harmonical structure, from a certain point of view. a JI (or 12 TET) third stays a third.
this has even further consequences. it means i can use intervals that are not related to simple intervals - that are wholly "detuned" - to add a specific mood, for example. it also gives 12 TET some credibility again.
it had always occured to me in the last years, that pure JI melodies often seem - a bit dull. now i understood why this was. they lacked the "tuning" - the "mood". a certain "detunedness" can create a powerful (i am sure JI can do this too - both are important).
this means JI, and microtuning, is not the "end" to it. it is just a plateau. it might be time to move on from it, and explore further avenues.
i should note that i lack knowledge of most of western harmonic theory, as i tried to stay clear of it to come up with "new" things, so it might be that a lot of what i wrote is already common knowledge to many. but to me, it was new, and i think it holds a lot of possibilites.