Technically Sam Raimi was the first to get to direct the third film of his Comic Book Superhero movie franchise. But he might as well not have, he was forced to include two characters he didn't want to in Spider-Man 3, Gwen Stacey and Venom.
In fact Christopher Nolan was the first to direct a full "Trilogy" in this genre, and really is still the only one. The MCU has let few even do two films. Even their once worshiped Joss Whedon wasn't allowed to stay for the third film. Meanwhile Snyder may be a credited director for three movies, but he had full artistic control of none of them and for the last quit part way through due to a personal tragedy.
Justice League and Suicide Squad are films being looked at as examples of dreaded executive meddling interfering with Directorial Artistic vision and ruining what the movie could have been. And every time that happens a lot of fanboys go "why won't they realize meddling never turns out well?".
But there are plenty of films that went wrong for the opposite reason, because the Director had so much clout that he had no leash on him. Peter Jackson's King Kong and the Hobbit movies are films where I myself agree, Jackson needed a leash. However I'll disagree when it comes to say Batman Returns, I still love that movie.
This is a nuanced issue that I feel many want to over simplify.
I'll say this, if you're one of many right now saying the MCU deserves it's massive success, and their films of the last 2 or 3 years are mostly their best yet. Then you don't think Executive Meddling is inherently bad, so stop pretending pure Directorial vision matters to you. I have enjoyed all the MCU films so far, but I do wish Rangnorock had actually been a Thor movie and not GOTG 2.5.
Frankly we would have had a DCU sooner if Nolan hadn't become a god DC didn't want to piss off. The Dark Knight Rises killed the ability for Nolan's franchise to ever lead into a Shared Universe, because he explicitly didn't want that. As a stand alone film I love The Dark Knight Rises, it's perfect. But it's not how The Dark Knight should have been followed up.
Whether or not Executive Meddling ruins something depends on what the conflicting visions are.
When a Director wants no leash on their creative control, they should stick to creating original properties, or Public Domain ones. If you're agreeing to direct a property for a Studio that owns it and has a vested interest in it's popularity beyond when you'll be done with it. You don't get to just do whatever you want.
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