Cool posts you're making here. I like the idea of explaining your choices so novices can understand the "why."
One thing I'd say you could add to the "How this image could have been made better" section is lowering the exposure in the sky in a photo editing tool. I think if shooting in raw, that camera should have the dynamic range to retain details from the sky even though it appears blown out here. The sky looks like it was fairly nice from the reflection on the water, but it's gone at the top. A downward adjustment of the highlights slider in your favorite photo editor might be enough to bring the sky back, but you could also use a virtual graduated filter.
Thank you @pfunk for your appreciation. Completely agree with your points on the sky being over exposed and the editing tips you mentioned on correcting it! I am sometimes lazy on using photoshop. Also I generally dont shoot in raw, I really should - will allow me to make a lot of such corrections as you mentioned. Thanks much for your awesome response, makes my post a lot better!
The extra dynamic range you get from the RAW capture is totally worth the time you spend editing the good shots.