An artist should have the freedom to choose his or her palette. To
criticise a modern piece of music for using tonality would be like
criticising a painting for not being abstract, or for having too much
of a certain color. I'm more interested in what the artist was trying to
say, and how well he or she said it. Along the same lines, I don't like
it when a composer tries to carve out a nitch by settling on a certain
style. Sometimes I think Shostakovich and Messiaen did that, although I
like their music. Ives used conventional tonality in the 3rd movement of
his 4th symphony. He explained, "no need to throw tonality out the window"
(if I remember correctly).
Mike