That's Dylan, all right. He owns the songs and probably feels that he can repaint them anyway he wants. Stardom came quickly for Dylan and lasted because no matter whether folks hated him or loved him, they talked about him.
His success in getting attention though was supported by his talent, which was in part, his imitation of his favorite singers. He listened over and over to the music of his favorites. Yet one cannot become someone else so Dylan began with imitating his predecessors and then tweaked that imitation into his own unique style.
Initially I think he started out just trying to be as good as the musicians he had listened to as a kid. Then as time went on, while continuing to pay homage to his audio mentors, he also seemed to deliberately age his vocal sound to greater than his real life age and that's where the half-spoken, often hard to understand lyrics came in.
He certainly can repaint his songs however he feels. I know some who go to a Dylan concert and leave disappointed because none of his songs sound like they're 'supposed to', but that's why every Dylan concert is a new experience. I love the way he plays A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall nowadays, he gave it a rock beat and it sounds great, better than the original in fact. As far as I know the only way to hear the new version is live, which is kind of a shame as I'd like to have it in my collection.