Leave It In

When I was a girl and consumed all manner of Writer's Digest Book Club books on how to write, one of the lessons was that a story should be streamlined.  Like, one passage I can recall was, roughly, "don't cut off your story's head, but do cut out all the fat" (ie, everything that isn’t strictly necessary).

But now as a fanfic writer, my sense is that at least for this audience that's not necessarily right?  Or is less strict?  Like, it is an important skill to know when something's not working or doesn't belong and cut it out --- but if a scene is good and enjoyable on its own, not detrimental to the whole but not really necessary, it seems like fanfic readers in general would rather it be left in where standard Writing Advice would be to cut it out.  Like in fanfic there's more tolerance for rambling and enjoying the sights along the way.

(Or maybe I just want to think this because my WIP is rambling.)

Thoughts?