I have been doing the Listener crossword (on and off) for over thirty years. It seems to me that recently there has been an increase in the number of puzzles that require some form of manipulation or 'non-cruciverbal' tinkering to complete, even though all the clues have been successfully solved.
Does anyone else find this annoying? In the crossword under discussion here the problem does appear to admit of a solution involving verbal/character treatment; those I dislike are the ones that involve a sort of 'spatial' awareness, where you are expected to notice that certain letters in the diagram approximate to the shape of a constellation or a mulberry leaf or whatever.
I sometimes think that these are intended to display the setters' satisfaction at their own ingenuity, rather than to add to the interest of the puzzle or to the enjoyment of the solver.
In the present case, surely the title must be a clue to the theme?