Well that is a live show and therefore totally different. One expects an artist to create a set list that makes sense and creates an atmosphere. One also expects them to create versions of the songs that work in the set list.
Either way, it is the artist dictating the selection, not a machine.
They are still the same songs though for all your protestations and you accept songs can be played in an order other than they appear on an album. I don't think WES is a machine (not according to your mum anyway) so a playlist is not necessarily compiled by one, as you seem to think. Quiet possible for those listening to an artist's complete recorded work to select songs that work together or are pleasing to them, surely? Would you only go to a gallery and insist on seeing an artist's portfolio in the order he/she created works of art of would you trust a curator to put together a show that reflects the artist's assembled works in the most interesting light?
I have attended a few musical performances in recent years where an artist is celebrating the anniversary of an album* and they have played the entire concert in the exact sequence of the record.
I am not convinced by it as a live experience, and that is before one overlooks the inevitable fact that most albums have low points**
*A theme which appears to have lost the run of itself
** Apart from All Mod Cons
Stranglers did this the other year when they played the whole of Black & White.
Like All Mod Cons there are no low points.
While all the points made in defence of playlists are valid, there is something As God Intended It about listening to an album properly - ie, tracks in the correct order and ideally on vinyl, so the impact of the tracks at the end of side 1 and beginning of side 2 make themselves felt. And with no fecking disembodied singles and b-sides tacked onto the end of the CD and basically ruining the thing. Grrr.