Mark,
I know that's not what I was trying to communicate, so at the risk of prolonging one of the narrowest and least important discussions in the history of GCA, I will search for another analogy (my apple vs. apple pie analogy didn't work -- in many cases, I'd prefer the apple, but I thought we were talking about cooking.)
How about this? You and I own adjoining lakefront property, but my beach is sandy and yours is rocky. I spend maybe an afternoon with a sand rake to smooth out a few lumpy areas and pick out a few rocks, while you take all summer to remove rocks, haul in sand and create a nice transition area from your lawn to the beach.
The next summer, we have mutual friends come over. They love my beach, and they like yours, too, but mine is somehow just a little more comfortable to walk on/swim in. Yet you did a much better job of landscape architecture than I did, because you had to. It doesn't make your beach better or more preferable, but we both know who should get the award if the lakefront homeowners' association were going to hand out prizes for best design work. Not best beach -- best design work.
I suppose I can take credit for not screwing up my beach with a waterfall or something -- and I might be damned good at converting rocky coastline to smooth beachfront, if I ever had to -- but in this one instance, you did better work than I did.
If that doesn't explain it, I'm out.