I'm using iTunes Match now, can I no longer manage the music on my iPhone through a playlist on my computer in iTunes?

Question

I used to pick and choose the music I wanted to take up the storage space on my iPhone through iTunes on my computer (note: not on my phone). Now that I use iTunes Match, the only way to delete songs seems to be to use my iPhone and swipe on whichever artists or songs I want to delete. Can I no longer use a playlist in iTunes to choose which music takes up the storage space? Let me know.. I still want to be able to play a song I haven't synched up to my phone through iTunes Match if I need to, though, so I don't want to just turn it off (plus I paid $25 for it...). Thanks!!

Answer 1

A few things:
1) By default, iTunes Match puts *nothing* on your iPhone. It just lists the songs that are in the cloud, and you can download them if you choose to. It seems like that's what you want, but you say you're not getting it. You don't have to delete everything you don't want. On the contrary: You have to download everything you do want. I'm confused.
Basically, my phone is already completely full (32GBs) of music and a few high def videos at the moment. I *want* about 24GBs of music on my phone right now. I *have* about 28 on there. It is nice to have that 24GBs of music on my phone because iTunes Match doesn't work perfectly - sometimes if I am driving, and I click play on a song I want to hear that isn't on my phone, it takes 20-40 seconds to start to play (with songs/mixes over 30 minutes, this can be several minutes). I want to keep a lot of songs on my phone, permanently, all the time, and choose songs to add to that permanent list as I choose/download them.
Maybe this will make it a little bit clearer, I realize this isn't the easiest thing to describe and I've had a few beers: I downloaded (by clicking play on my phone) songs I don't want to take up space on my phone. I clicked play on them, on my phone, while driving in my car. Heard that song once, now I don't want to hear it again for awhile, and I certainly don't want it taking up my precious space on my phone. Now imagine this situation times 100 or so.. that's 100 different songs (a few of them very long mixes) on my phone that I have to go in and manually delete by swiping. I want to do it from my computer.. it'd be way easier to find them and delete them.
Anyway, I think the answer is that there isn't a way to manage my music with iTunes Match enabled on my computer. No big deal, I guess, just suggesting there should be easier ways.
2) You actually don't need iTunes Match to redownload a song that you forgot to sync over, as long as it's a song you purchased in iTunes. Anyone (match subscriber or not) can redownload iTunes-purchased music, tv shows, apps, and books right from the device in the iTunes app.
I have never downloaded a song from iTunes, so this doesn't apply.
3) In your mind, what are the features of iTunes Match on the iPhone other than makin your entire library accessible for download from the cloud? As far as my logic takes me, if you want to manually control what's on it, you specifically don't want iTunes Match enabled, and I don't see any other reason you would want it enabled.
The only feature I am using iTunes Match for is to download music I haven't synced to my phone, onto my phone. I just want to be able to delete it later from my computer. I guess I want to be able to see the songs I have downloaded since the last sync so that I could easily delete those songs.. Yes, that would be a good solution.