All valid points. The "crack" alone isn't the reason I favor a tight snare. I cherish the feel as well. My preference is to have the stick do 90 percent of the work for me. Also, I like sensitivity and articulation, and both are more profound with tighter tunings. I've heard guys complain about tight snare heads on the basis that they can't lay into them with comfort and thus prefer lower tensions. But with a tighter tension, you don't need to lay into the head, as you can achieve impressive volume with reduced effort. With the right skill, you can play them quietly too.
I don't always go for a "Stewart Copeland" sound. I do tune lower on occasion. Regardless, I love Copeland's snare, which he described in an interview as "cranked so high it could take a bird out of the sky." I must profess that Don Henley's pillow-like snare has never done it for me. It sounds like a tom to which someone attached snare wires because he left his real snare at home. All tastes are different.
As for covers, they adopt my sound, not the other way around. If a listener prefers the original version, he can put on a CD. And the simple truth is that the average audience member is about as aware of your snare tuning as he is of the laws of thermodynamics. In fact, I'll bet he knows more about the second than the first.