No, "helping the story" is such a self-important statement, premised on the idea that things you think will help the story will, in fact, objectively do so, and that things you think will be detrimental to the story will, in fact, objectively be so.

But that's kind of bullshit. I personally feel that non-linear narratives should die a quick death and the authors who use it are probably trying too hard to be deep. But that's my personal opinion. Non-linear narratives are not objectively bad (or good). Authors don't owe me linear narratives.

And if they want to write it, it's not something that "shouldn't be there but was because they wanted to self-indulge". It's something that's there because they wanted to write it.