personally, as an artist-writer, i think the healthiest and most effective setup is for panelling and cinematography to be developed as a collaborative effort between writer and artist. these things are essential to how the story is told, so to take best advantage of them means a combination of the artist's expertise and the writer's narrative vision. i see an ideal scenario being like the collaboration between the writer and storyboarder in mad max; the storyboarding process was so intensive and integral to the writing that the storyboarder got a writing credit.
course, it all depends on each individual dynamic. and i agree with you that the artist should take the helm on all things visual.