I definitely appreciate things more that provide valuable utility or some other derivative value. You're right that some works are appreciated beyond their utility, for how they are experienced.
I do think there may be utility in these things even when the pattern is more apparent than the application. A good poem makes us feel something. I just wouldn't get the same feeling from a math problem unless it solved something for me. Not to diminish your appreciation for this, just that I find a poem more accessible.