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Well I write music pretty much because I can say stuff in music that I can't say any other way. Not very clever or profound, but who cares.
Like Gardener said tho, when I've had pieces performed (commissions or otherwise) it does bring the piece to a "well, that's done" close moment. Though you can always tweak stuff on it and I usually end with a new and better score after a performance. Recently however the feedback I've gotten from performances hasn't been so new or important as when I first started, but you always learn a thing or two anyways.
But, by no means do I think performance is the end-all goal for me. I mean, I write a lot of shit that can't be performed. Like I said, to me it's just expression. Getting it played by people and such is a nice bonus and it's nice when others can hear it, but the important thing for me is that I externalize my internal musical thoughts and work on them so they're better than what I had in my head.
And for that it really is fine with just a well written score, even if it has no performance. Getting a performance is sometimes easy, sometimes it isn't so I wouldn't really put it so high on the list unless you're reasonably famous or like Gardener have a flow of work that lets your stuff get performed regularly.
There's also the "Well I also write electronic music" side. I'm writing something that will actually get a performance where I'm putting general midi instruments next to the real ones in duets and other situations and sort of messing with "well that sounds like shit" sounds in a way that focuses on, well, that sounds like shit is subjective.
But that piece is going to basically exist complete only once I get the actual performance recorded along with the electronics (and all works, lol.) So it's one of those half/half things.
And then there's obviously electronic music which doesn't need anyone performing it. I'm totally for that, and I love it. I don't honestly hold the traditional instruments in such high regard that I can't just replace them with square waves and noise. ... In fact I've recently began writing chiptunes using famitracker. So I guess it depends. To me a cello doesn't really sound any "better" than a something produced by a chip on an ancient gaming console. It just has to do with what I want.
I think because my objectives are so open, I'm also really open to using just whatever I can get my hands on to put together a piece of music. I also end up running into ideas I've never seen anyone do before, or where there's no reference literature and I have to make shit up as I go along which is fun.
Plus there's a second purpose to writing a score to me, depending on the piece. I have a series of preludes which are basically more important written than performed (though we did perform them, somewhat) and it's the sort of thing that reaches more into visual art and, well, poetry and such than music (though they're obviously playable as music too.)
I'm not too concerned, like I said, so long as what I have in my head ends up on paper regardless if anyone will ever see it or much less perform it.
... And I also have some more metaphysical reasons for composing, but I'm not getting into that as this is waaaaay tl;dr as it is.
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