When viewers see in image in its “final” form they typically have no inkling of the various compositional versions of that image that may have been considered and rejected during processing.
This damned rock has bamboozled me once again but this time it did it with my most desired photographic quarry. I call it “frustration rock” for very good reason.
Catch lights are highly desirable, to the point that many bird photographers simply delete any photo that doesn’t have them (a painful process, to be sure).