When I use that term, I'm talking specifically about people who think they have the right to tell me I cannot appreciate a piece of art, because of something bad the artist did. What you are describing is rather more nuanced (and therefore sensible). So in that sense, yes I don't separate art from artist. Spielberg's childhood trauma of his parent's divorce informs every frame of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, for instance.

Or, to take a more contentious example, Sam Peckinpah's ideas about masculinity, as well as his misogyny and drunkenness, informs his (very impressive) body of work. The Wild Bunch is one of my all-time favourites, but yes, his flaws are absolutely on display there too. I find it entirely possible to enjoy The Wild Bunch whilst also acknowledging Peckinpah was a very damaged individual, whose views on women I do not share.

Even more contentious: Roman Polanski's films. He is a hugely talented director, no question. The shadow of his childhood trauma looms over much of his work. As a child, he spent the war hiding from the Nazis, and was almost killed by a soldier who smashed a rock over his head and left him for dead. In an interview I read, he said that whenever he takes a shower he can "taste blood". On top of that, his wife Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson cult, which seriously messed him up. Does that justify his hedonism, or the way he later slept with an underage girl? Of course not. But it is important context. Much of this vivid life experience - some of which we rightly condemn - is inherent in his work. So in that sense, I completely agree with you.

Conversely, I think it is also true that one can appreciate all these films with no knowledge of the director’s personal life at all. I certainly knew nothing about Spielberg’s parent’s divorce when I first saw E.T. aged seven. Nor did I know anything about Peckinpah or Polanski’s volatile personal lives when I first saw The Wild Bunch and Chinatown as a teenager (two films that were instantly added to my all-time favourites list, and have remained there ever since).