I agree with you about “Atlas Shrugged”.
And I DO appreciate a little bit of dissonance in music. I love Prokofiev and Stravinsky, and even Beethoven stretched the borders of harmony, much to the dismay of the musical “establishment”. But, in my very humble opinion, I find too much of that dissonance, for its own sake, annoying.
The three composers that I mentioned used discord discerningly and with intelligence, in order to provide contrast to some of the most exquisite melodies ever to grace the ears of humanity.