I agree completely. One's knowledge of theoretical computer science or most obscure syntactic sugar means little if you aren't able to find a solution to whatever problem you run into. More times it is the willingness to fail through trial and error and the ability to adapt around the limit knowledge one has that separates the good developers from the bad ones.
At the end of the day if you can figure out a way to solve the problem given the constraints you have to work within, that's always going to be good enough. It doesn't matter that you know, but can find ways to eventually unlocking that knowledge at the right place at the right time.
Great summary on that front! It is definitely about coming up with a solution on iterating on said solution instead of making an attempt at being intellectually peculiar in your approach. Most times a solution is just that - a solution.
Thanks for your input!