[akashakya]

On top of that, there are hundreds of versions of Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata with different themes and story[1]. Excluding retellings in different languages with a different style and changes story depending on languages, region & religion. My mother tongue (Kannada) alone has more than 10 ancient version or so which I heard of.

It seems that old writers had a different idea of storytelling. They were focused more on the theme & prosody[2] than the story. I think it set the bar very high since everyone know the base story. No wonder they had this complex structure and ideas for prosody[2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama_in_Jainism

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit_prosody