Good point! The difference is that the case explained in this post is one of the most sensible version of confusing the goal and the path, since there the path is actually a really good path. On the other version (like wanting to find a simple theory simply, the path is not even a good one!
This seems to generalize your recent Confusing the goal and the path take:
the goal → the necessary: to achieve the goal, it’s tautologically necessary to achieve it
the path → the ideal one wants: to achieve the goal, one draws some ideal path to do so, confusing it with the former.
To quote your post:
Or, recalling the wisdom of good old Donald Knuth:
Good point! The difference is that the case explained in this post is one of the most sensible version of confusing the goal and the path, since there the path is actually a really good path. On the other version (like wanting to find a simple theory simply, the path is not even a good one!