Regarding the “creating from scratch”… I see it this way. If you don’t realise it, will it even exist? I do think photography is somewhat “creating from scratch”, and this is what makes it artistic. A photographer can go to a place city to make nice city scape shots, or can walk into a trash dumping ground to capture the essence of the forgotten items. It depends on whose eyes see it and whose mind depicts it.
DEsign doesn’t start from nothing too. Well, nothing starts from nothing. There is always a question or problem which leads to the desire to find an answer. I think the limitations in product design will be similar to the existing environmental settings in photography. One will have to either move around or make the best out of it to achieve the goal.