I've had many stories ideas that have gone nowhere* (or haven't yet, maybe they're just waiting for another ingredient), but I don't see that so much as painting myself into the corner as it is discovering that something simply doesn't work. Such things get put back into my pile of thoughts/notes for consideration at another time when I'm hard up for ideas.
My characters don't always do what I thought they were going to when I first pointed them in some particular direction, but so far they've always found their way through without me needing to invent some magic pill, call upon divine intervention**, or break the rules of my fantasy.
One of the things that I like about letting the story evolve is that it also lets you incorporate things that you discover along the way. For example, a girl turned up for a walk-on role in the first book of the series I've just finished, but I liked her, she felt right, and she went on to play an important role right through to the end. Another character, while still only part of my background work, turned out to have quite a distinct personality that ended up being the biggest change I made to the final scenes from what I had originally envisaged.
Which is not to say that you cannot adapt an outline as you go, and achieve the same sort of result. But I've found that it can be difficult for me to let things go that I've already put down on the page (which, of course, we all must do). So I think a detailed outline would have a constraining effect on me, and I would avoid accepting the evolving nature of my story in order keep to my outline.
I accept that my method of writing means that I throw out a lot, and if I was doing this to try and make a living then I might have to re-think my approach. But I'm doing this to write stories that I want to write. Sure, I'd love my stories to sell and make money, but I'm realistic enough to accept that that is unlikely (especially with my lack of marketing skills or inclination). So if I'm going to spend time writing, I'll do what feels good to me. I like being surprised by my story and my characters, it makes me feel involved in the story, which is largely why I'm here in the first place.
* It might be more accurate to say that, at least for a very long time, most of my stories when nowhere. If they can't keep me interested when I re-read them then I don't burden anyone else with them.
** There is one particular fantasy author that has written many books that I really enjoy EXCEPT for the ending where he quite regularly pulls in (what feels like) a deus ex machina to get his heroes out of their bind. I'm really hoping I can avoid that in my own writing, but I'd also like to be able to write as well as him for the rest of it. 