You can improve on anything.
The wonder of cooking is a recipe is a basis...it is not a formula like baking...you bake, you have to follow the directions or it won't work.
A recipe is a guide you can enhance, delete, or leave as is....it's great....I have probably made 400 batches of gumbo over the years, and I would bet very few are exactly the same.
It's art in culinary form.