For example, when there is an abstract or undefined problem to be solved, the 'free thinking' people are super valuable because they can search for hidden requirements, think about edge cases and most importantly, challenge established ideas to come about with a better solution.
On the other hand, sometimes the solution is clearly known and you just need to grind it out. Think about the code that you've written over and over again (for us it is market data feed handlers) and there's nothing novel about it. Just gotta get the work done. I've seen some people try to reinvent the wheel for these tasks and its just not needed.
We had this joke at one company where we'd say "are you rewriting rsync?" because every once in a while someone would try to do something brand new and shiny when the tech was already defined and the parts needed to be assembled. Conversely, we also had some folks who did things that were incredibly creative and fresh. It's all about balance.