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I think you misunderstand the point of tropes, conventions, and "rules".
The central point is to be aware of them in order to either try and come up with something original (difficult), to know when you can break those rules, or to at least be aware of what has gone before in order to avoid being clichéd in your approach.
As a previous answer noted, you're like a painter, sitting with a blank canvas and a whole array of colours and brushes before you to choose from. There's a massive range of techniques and styles for you to rely on. All other painters have the same colours to choose from. So many painters have done portraits, or landscapes. Does this mean that painting is not creative? Well, if all you want to do is create replicas of other paintings, then yes, that's just formulaic and dull. But if you're aware of what's gone before, this frees you immensely to play with these conventions and rules and techniques to create unique combinations.
So many times, I think I've come up with a great twist or idea, only to discover it's been done before, and better, by someone else. Coming up with an original take on an old idea is exceptionally hard. In fact, most of the time, the story you want to write has already been written. This doesn't mean you shouldn't use this idea, it just means you need to think more carefully about how to convey it. The central difference is how you decide to tell that story, how you stand on the shoulders of giants and play with their techniques and ideas in unusual ways.
This spurs creativity, not hinders it, because it forces you to rethink your ideas, to dig deeper in trying to come up with a different way of telling the same story, to play tricks on readers by not always doing what is expected. That is where true creativity lies.
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