to me, the meaning lies in both perspectives and yes the import of that is multiple subjective meanings--that the author had one message in mind and the reader receives another doesn't invalidate either--it's always interesting to know what an author had in mind as a starting point of any discussion

This comes up very often with poetry. My poetry tends to be what I call intellectual rather than beautiful. When I publish a poem on Medium (the only place I have ever published) I often provide an explanation of the piece. I find that many readers express appreciation. Some readers who also write poetry push back, saying they don't want to know what I had in mind and that poetry should always be received however the reader wants to. 🤷‍♂️