the key to actually winning was happening to know that there was a secret
It wasn't a secret to the winner. ;-) So I think justice was served there.
And who can prove that Ton's magic formula is the final word?
It's just possible someone might have invented a more magical formula than Ton and out-Ton-ed Ton. I know I tried. :-)
Update: it turns out a
more magical formula was indeed available all along!
Seriously though, I agree with you that it was unfortunate that Fonality chose a problem where knowing of a previous similar golf gave a significant advantage. They didn't do it on purpose and I'm sure if they'd have known, they would have set a different problem. Having said that, I still enjoyed golfing on the non-magic-formula parts of the problem and found that to be challenging-in-the-extreme ... to the point of melting my brain at times. :-)
