Post-"representational" Painting is also strangely like this as well, even, strangely enough, with a certain time pressure: the first mark/stroke will, most of the time, be be better than the marks that come after that, and a corrected stroke almost invariably worse. Plus, as time continues, the surface ages.

Here's a concept from 19th century music that seems connected to the question of thematic refactoring/development: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thematic_transformation