Merken - To Notice...Subtle, Subtlety, etc.

Yesterday, February 14, marked a significant date: 8 years since Liz and I first met. Though not face-to-face. Our first contact with one another happened over the internet, in a chat room, and later progressed to letters in the mail and hours-long phone conversations. This went on for six months until we did meet in person, after I rode a Grayhound bus from Carbondale, IL to Austin, TX (a 23-hour trip). Someday I will write this story, but not today.
---
Recently I have thought about two questions, or rather, a question and a statement. (I don’t know why these have come to mind, they just kind of bubbled to the surface while I was taking a shower.) They are the sort of commentary one hears in workshops and in poor-quality reviews and criticism:

"It seems as though the author is trying to be subtle."
"What point is the author trying to make?"

How is subtlety a bad thing? When do authors write anything with a conscious desire to effect subtlety? Is a clear understanding of "subtle" (adjective) warranted? Should we sort through the word’s many denotations?

[Oxford English Dictionary]
1. Of thin consistency, tenuous; not dense, rarefied; hence, penetrating, pervasive or elusive by reason of tenuity (now chiefly of odors).
2. Of fine or delicate texture or composition (Obs. exc. Arch.). b. Of food: delicate, light. (Obs.)
3. Of small thickness or breadth; thin, slender, fine. (Obs.) b. Of a ship. (Obs.)
4. Finely powdered; (of particles) fine, minute. (Obs.)
5. Of immaterial things: not easily grasped, understood, or perceived; (Obs.:) intricate, abstruse. (Now merged in sense 6).
6. Fine or delicate, especially to such an extent as to elude observation or analysis.
7. Of craftsmen, etc.: Skillful, clever, expert, dextrous. (Const. of) arch. b. transf. c. Of animals. rare.
8. Of things: characterized by cleverness or ingenuity of conception of execution; cleverly designed or executed, artfully contrived. (Obs.)
9. Of persons, their faculties, actions: Characterized by penetration, acumen, or discrimination. Now with implication of (excessive) refinement or nicety of thought, speculation, or argument.
10. Of persons or animals: Crafty, cunning; treacherously or wickedly cunning, insidiously sly, wily. (Obs.) b. Of actions, thoughts, etc. (Obs.) c. Of ground: tricky. (Obs.)
11. Working imperceptibly or secretly, insidious.
12. Of weight: = subtile (Obs.)

Also, "Subtlist" (noun):

One who is addicted to subtleties.

Also, "Subtlize" (verb):

Rare. Intransitive. To indulge in subtleties.

Ah, the verb "(to) subtle" (Obs.):

1. Reflexive and Intransitive. To devise subtleties or subtle distinctions, to argue subtly.
2. Intransitive. To scheme, plan craftily. Also with clause.
3. Transitive. To devise cleverly.
4. To attenuate, reduce.
5. ? To pulverize, reduce to ashes. nonce-use.

I understand that what I am doing is devising subtleties and making subtle distinctions; I am also, perhaps, indulging in subtleties. But how is "subtle" a word to be used in a pejorative sense? How?
---
"Subtle" cannot be subtle with a b.