Errikos,
As you know, Schoenberg did write Gurrelieder and Verklate Nacht, not exactly third/fourth rate music in a technical sense at least - subjectively his music is what one makes of it and I can also see you are not that enamoured with the 2nd Vienese school, which is fair enough. Yeah....academia has a lot to answer for.
I'm not entirely convinced in your reasoning and condemnation of atonality being a complete break from tonality, this surely depends on how it is applied technically and in what context. For me, it is an expansion of resource and a logical one that does not necessarily need equivalence (especially in the constant employment, or generation of all 12 tones!), to be the central paradigm. Granted that in Schoenbergs' definition of the Method, equivalence to all intent and purpose wiped out any lingering intimation to gravity, but depending on ones' ears at the time and how used one was to chromaticism, that may have been somewhat moot anyway.
There are great works being written right now, I mean why would there not be? The high standard of composer technique has not disappeared (despite the hands down brigade) and might arguably be even more sophisticated than the early to middle 20thC. Some of us may not like what is being written but I do not believe fate has somehow conspired to relieve us of any potent voice in our lifetime. However, given the context in which you say as such, here's a thought - Perhaps music does not actually need to go anywhere for a while given the huge resources and a more tolerant, relaxed aesthetic available to composers.
There is of course more to be said in C major and undoubtedly a great deal more to be said everywhere else in the electromagnetic spectrum, we are all spoilt for choice.
One more thought, it strikes me that this thread originally asked where music is going and I take it to be in the abstract sense, but the spat here between atonal and tonal seems to sometimes lurch into a debate predicated on atonalities' appeal to popular culture (quite apart from suffering from loose definitions based on some participants knowledge), rather than its' potential power as a way forward in a creative sense. In other words it is being judged and often condemned by a common denominator of popular cultural consent namely appeal - a quality most of the greats of music in the last 100 years have been deeply suspicious of..............😈
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