Don,
You are right! That is a dilemma and you raised a very interesting set of questions of the use of asymmetry, need for points of interest and sense of “balance”. Are there rules or merely fashions and preferences?
There is no doubt that the photographer seeks to direct the eyes and attention of the viewer and by that get them intrigued enough to continue to look and linger.
If that meter wasn’t there, one might have taken in more of the interesting crack in the plaster on the lower left and framed very differently. Without that meter, there is little reason to have such assymetery as there is now, without something interesting also included.
However if the space on the right was taller and wider, with overwhelming assymetry, it would be powerful.
Asher