An elegant solution requires a deep understanding of a problem, and that understanding takes a lot of data (awareness of cases), and then a lot of time and effort to create a simple theory of it and to create a simple solution embodying that theory.
That is quite a trick. The problem is that pretty soon, everyone depends on the behavior of the ugly warts in your original system, so now you're stuck with them lest you break the holy Compatibility.
An elegant solution requires a deep understanding of a problem, and that understanding takes a lot of data (awareness of cases), and then a lot of time and effort to create a simple theory of it and to create a simple solution embodying that theory.