It's important to remember as well that technical accuracy by itself doesn't make a performance or recording sterile, just as intellectual or technical complexity on its own doesn't strip a piece of music of emotional force. There's a lot more at play than these black and white distinctions and I think that that is overlooked all too often.
This whole question becomes especially thorny with contemporary classical music where the performers often don't have the time or budget or experience to really master a new work. I very recently found myself in the position of editing a recording of my own work. I write somewhat thorny and complicated stuff and it's rare that performers have had enough time with it to "dig in" and elevate it beyond the material on the page. Indeed, most composers today (certainly including myself!) never really hear all the right notes in performances of their music, let alone a really expressive and great interpretation...there's simply not enough time and too much going against the work that would be required for performers to get beyond the nuts-and-bolts level of notes, dynamics, tempi, rhythm, articulation, etc.
So in editing my own work, I have to decide upon whether to use a take which is exciting and expressive but gets the actual composition wrong (i.e. missed notes, rhythms, articulation, etc.) or a take which is accurate but too clinical or dull. Now, a recording of a piece of new music is, for all intents and purposes, the piece itself...very few people if any actually look at the score and see what the original musical idea was. It all depends on the performers. So this problem descends to a more basic level than perfection vs. greatness or whatever - it's really "is this the piece that the composer wrote or is it the accidental product of an under-rehearsed performance?"
Now, despite the amount of effort and care I put into the choices I make as a composer, I often prefer a performance that gets a bunch of stuff wrong but is daring and exciting. But what does that say about the importance of what's on the page? I'm not really sure, and I know there are comosers who would have a very different set of imperatives when producing or editing a recording of their own work. And even the performers involved in my recent recording objected to some of the takes that I (the composer!) chose because they contained some sloppy playing.
On a larger scale, it's interesting to note the popularity of older classical recordings and the public's tolerance for wrong notes in, say a Schnabel Beethoven, and at the same time the absolute unacceptability of even a teenager missing a note in a recital. It's certainly a cultural thing, and I'm not sure if it's a sign of progress...
The same could definitely be said for a lot of non-classical music as well.
my 2 cents anyway...