I can't really argue with you too much since that was the way I started out. But my mentor didn't like the huge hand on the spindly elbow so he suggested the wrap-around. It works for most of it, but not for all of it. I'm going to find some slight alternative pose around "next year" to break it up, I think.
I began with more aggressive poses but every week my mentor was nibbling away at this to get the performance smaller, smaller, smaller. A few more weeks and it might have disappeared entirely.