I have always been fascinated with this, so after years of pondering this, this is the best explanation I can come up with:
Skiing in my eyes is an art form and a culture. Competition skiing is a sport. It is the difference between an art vs. a science, Classical reasoning vs. romantic reasoning.
Comp skiing can be written down on a piece of paper and understood. How many spins/flips, difficulty of grab, execution.
Style can not be graded on piece of paper.
You can write down a trick that Andri Ragettli does and I could envision exactly how it looks because there is nothing added to it. His tricks look exactly how they sound. It is the simplest version of a trick.
It would require an essay to describe something that Phil Casabon does and it still wouldn't do it justice. He has the ability to add so many details into a simple trick that it is no longer simple, but something complex.
Anyone can go chunce a double cork with a boot grab. All it takes is some athleticism.
Skiing becomes an art when you take a trick that everyone can do and add details that make is distinguishably your own. This is the beauty of skiing.
Art vs Science
Conventional vs Unconventional
A generic pop-song vs A symphony
Neither is evil or bad