Agreed that the elegance or inelegance is in the puzzle and must be attributed to the composer. As for the solver, it's not a matter of right and wrong ("need to apologize"). For me, it's not just about sending in the right answer but seeing all there is to see in the puzzle. I think the terms "short cut" and "scenic route" are apt. Is the goal to get from A to B, or is it to see what delights the trip can offer?
In some fields (math, science), what is elegant is also what is simple. But that doesn't hold in other areas. Yes, you can fast forward to the end of the movie to find out who the killer was, You can speed-walk through MOMA and say you've seen all the paintings. And you can down a 6-oz. glass of La Crema pinot noir in a couple of seconds. But that's not the point.
In the recent "Blank Stares" MGWCC, Barbara K said that she got the right answer from the entries in the grid but had overlooked the part of the puzzle hiding in plain sight in the clues: all the inportant clues had a blank in them. Me too and I kicked myself for missing that because I know that I would have enjoyed the experience of solving the puzzle more if I had actually noticed it.