Someone asked why I do visible mending instead of trying to hide it,…

Someone asked why I do visible mending instead of trying to hide it, and I gave a bad answer at the time so here is the better one.

Hiding it is a skill and I respect it and it is not what I am doing. An invisible mend says the damage did not happen. A visible one says the damage happened and the thing is still here. Those are different sentences and I want to be saying the second one.

Also, practically: an invisible mend has to be perfect or it is worse than nothing, and a visible one only has to be sound. I am a better sewer when the job is "hold this together properly" than when it is "commit a forgery".