I always thought the narrative sold in the early 90s, that Kristi was some great artistic skater, to be a load of bull.
She was a rather safe, paint-by-numbers type of skater. Very robotic and consistent, did everything her coach and choreographer laid out for her, but I never felt she actually ever connected with her programs or music. Watching Kristi was like watching someone go through a check-list of elements, all done proficiently, but done simply because she was told to do so, not because she was moved to do so. When I think of great artistic skaters, they have this ability (no matter how rehearsed they are) to lose themselves (or at least [italic]appear[/italic] to lose themselves) in the performance and the music, like each movement and expression is born out of genuine emotion and necessity to what the music is communicating. This ability I saw in Michelle Kwan, Jeremy Abbott, Torvill and Dean, etc...skaters that I would consider "artistic" skaters.
I never got that from Kristi. She was way too guarded to ever let herself go in a performance, and played every aspect of her amateur career safely.
In many ways, I would argue that Midori was on par with her artistically, if not better. I certainly found her more entertaining to watch, that's for sure. She wasn't as "graceful" in the conventional sense, but boy did she come alive and explode when she was on. Watch any of her memorable performances, and you can see the pure joy on her face and how dynamically she moved with the music. She had deep edges, speed, power and, unlike Harding, amazing musicality, which is often overlooked.
Kristi benefitted a lot from the politics of the times too. She packaged herself exactly how the judges thought a female skater should be at the time--petite, dainty, graceful and, above all, overtly feminine. It was easy for her team to contrast this image against the powerful, stout Ito and her more "butch"-like skating. Midori wasn't overtly feminine, but that didn't make her skating any less artistic, but nevertheless Kristi and her team definitely made sure to play up this contrast all the way up to the games.
Kristi was the "artist" and Midori was the "athlete"...which was just coded language for feminine and masculine. In those days, for female skaters, femininity was de-facto seen as more artistic...which I don't agree with. I think being feminine doesn't make a skater more or less artistic, but that's how artistic impression was perceived back then.
When Midori was on her game, she was an undeniable force that couldn't be denied, and I think if she had skated cleanly, would've easily beaten Kristi. But Midori was unfortunately a head case and, by 1992, totally bought into the artist/athlete narrative and tried to skate to pretty music that did nothing to highlight her strengths--which ultimately was the end of her in my opinion.
But yeah, I think Kristi's supposed "artistry" was largely manufactured simply because she wore the veneer of it very well. That, along with consistency, was enough for her to win.