I believe all forms of art follow the same principals. Whether it is painting, design, dance, food, music, etc. they all find common ground in the same principals and theories you can read about in any art book. Being a guitarist and designer, I can best make the comparison between painting/design and music.
I like a good amount of reverb in my lead guitar tone. Being able to "hear the room" is really a pleasing quality to me. It makes the guitar sound bigger, occupying more space and the notes have more presence. It also adds another tool to your "note toolbox", because a single note that rings out/echos (say, after a bend or fast slide) still occupies some musical space. In music, space is a principal that is as important as it is in art.
I compare this note's reverb to a single brush stroke across a canvas. As the brush drags across, the paint breaks up and thins out. It becomes exciting because it is unpredictable, which also makes it interesting. It is the most interesting part of the brush stroke. The note is not as unpredictable to the player as the paint is to the painter, but to the listener it is. It is always unexpected and when you catch it, and it fills the space correctly, it is memorable.