I could not agree more. Thank you for pointing this out. Many vocalist forget that it's through(but not limited to) emotion that people connect with a song.
Toning down the vocals to a song is sometimes harder than going all colorful on a song. I can attest to what you said about this topic. With some songs, as you put it so well, less is more and more is less.
One trick that I use, that I find helps, is seeing the vocals in wavelength in my mind as I sing them.
The enunciation of words also helps. For example, "Alone" has a more darker and heavier feel to it when sung phonetically "uh-lone" then the bright sounding "eh-lone" .
Anyway, I though I could add to your masterpiece of a post.
This post was a great find. Thank you once again.
Regards,
G.