I don’t know if there is a concrete, one-size-fits-all answer to this question. But for what it’s worth, here are my thoughts.

We all know different genres have different expectations, including, but not limited too:

• point of view, possibly (urban fantasy, for instance, is often in first person. It’s not my sub-genre of fantasy, but I know that much about it)
• different tropes (like the reluctant hero, for example)
• expected length (fantasy runs longer than other genres, thanks to the world-building)

So, should you write to meet genre expectations?

If you care about being marketable more than you care about the craft and the actual story, then sure.

But I wouldn’t recommend bucking genre standards or trashing them just for the sake of rebelling. (Are you writing a satire, though? That’s different).

Honestly, how important it is to meet target audience expectations for your genre depends on why you are writing and what you want your book to do.

Recognize that your book will be for more of a niche audience if you don’t hold to genre standards.

You might want to make clear in your blurb and description what readers will be in for (in a general sense), so they don’t pick up your book thinking it’s something it’s not and then trash it in reviews.

Agents and publishers will be less likely to take a chance on it, for sure. (Consider going indie).

But just like I wouldn’t throw out genre standards without a reason, I wouldn’t bend over backward to incorporate them either, if your story leads you someplace a bit different.

In short, I would write the story you need to write. The story that is inside you. Worries about marketing and such can come later. There will be a time for that.

Don’t manipulate your story, or destroy its integrity, by making it be something it isn’t. Just let your story be. Let it be TRUE. Let it be REAL. Let it be HONEST, without an explicit agenda or political message.

The important thing is to tell a coherent, cohesive, engaging, “true” story. If you do that, it will naturally, I think, explore some aspect or other of what it means to be human.

That is what stories are all about. If your story isn’t authentic, if it’s forced into something it’s not meant to be for the sake of some agenda, readers will absolutely be able to tell.