At the moment, I find skaters like Nathan Chen, Patrick Chan, Alina Zagitova, and Bradie Tennell to possess more physical intention than emotional intention. In contrast Jason Brown, Carolina Kostner, Satoko Miyahara, Mariah Bell this year, and Kevin Aymoz skate with more emotional intention than physical intention.
I agree with you up to a point. Some skaters find that emotional key inside a piece of music and can express that in every moment and flick of the wrist. However sometimes those that focus of the physical aspect of dance can transcend.
YMMV but when I see someone like Michael Jackson dancing the rhythm flows through him in such a way that even though he isn’t playing a character in the dance to find the core or perhaps he isn’t finding the emotion in an obvious way he and the beat become one. I think Michael got to that point by being able to control his every movement precisely, there is an appeal in that precision. So if Chen, Zagitova and Tennell want to go down the physical intention path they could still find musicality but in a different form.