Perfection is stifling and restricted. It’s also flawless and gets results every time. Have fun playing how you want and look like a sloppy amateur, or follow a rigid code of conduct and be the Tiger Woods of hitmen; you can’t have everything.
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That’s kinda how I play in Freelancer for the most part, although my loadout tends to reflect my objectives. The nature of no SA does mean I try for no SA, but if not then no witnesses.
Again though, often I’ll play organically as mess ups or objectives can affect things.
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You restart so it’s not perfection.
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The perfection is in the completion. Restarting does not affect that.
Then it’s not really perfect, is it? 
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If Leonardo da Vinci started a painting, realized he screwed up, threw it away, started to paint the same thing again, and did it perfectly the second time, would you say his painting is not a work of perfection because of the first one he threw away, or was that one that one, and this one is this one? If I didn’t restart and try again, then it wouldn’t be perfect.
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Leonardo da Vinci? He is the one who clocks.
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You say that as if there’s a fine line between the two. I can’t say I play perfectly 100% of the time, but I’m far from a “sloppy amateur.”
Edit: And I’m sure that wasn’t directed to me, but anyone in general.
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There’s not a fine line; there’s a chasm. To be less than perfect is to be sloppy, and that is the domain of amateurs.
Now, there is some overlap in the “have fun” aspects of it. For instance, I am not having when not adhering to the HPP, but when I do, I am having loads of fun attaining success while maintaining such high standards. So my statement that you could only have fun when being a sloppy amateur was, indeed, an exaggeration. But, you get the point.
I haven’t played recently Freelancer, but how we can talk about perfection in a mode where most of the time there are conflicting or unattainable objectives? It’s the reason I stopped playing the mode. Did they fix them ?
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Naw. You’ll still get the occasional conflicting objectives. For example Sniper Kill a target Objective, SA no firearms prestige objective. 
Edit to add: This seems like a very rare crate to find…
Edit 2: I think I’ll always use a coin with the (non-stolen) car exit in Mendoza.
Just as fun as dropping an illegal item when exiting the default starting location in Paris and the boat exit in Bangkok.
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Conflicting objectives are generally quite rare - its definitely not “most of the time”. I think I’ve only had one instance of it in the last 15 campaigns I’ve played.
Happy it has been improved, may be I will give it a try again.
Leonardo was not perfection. You are…allegedly. 
Meet the Vitruvian Man, a drawing by Leonardo that contains both a perfect circle and a perfect square, neither of which it is believed were accomplished on the first attempt.
Leonardo is not perfection, and neither am I. Leonardo, however, can achieve perfection in his work, and I achieve perfection in my playing. Not succeeding on the first try invalidates neither of us.
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Freelancer is designed to punish you for failure, it’s a game, every game, whether video, board or card, has rules. Comparing it to producing a masterpiece work of art, which is absolutely not a game, is contrived at best and self-aggrandising at worst.
Do whatever you want that gives you the most enjoyment from the game, it doesn’t affect anyone else. You don’t need to come up with grandiose analogies to justify your preferred style of play nor claim it’s somehow superior to other ways of playing, it just is what it is.
No matter what game someone is playing, whether by the original rules, or ones that the player invented for themselves, they will obviously always be trying to play to win - the only distinction is who came up with the conditions.
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I’m not even talking about Freelancer specifically, so you’re off base there to begin with. And what it’s designed to do is not relevant to me. And I used the example of the Vitruvian Man, not to make my point about my play style itself, but that retrying and achieving perfection on a retry does not negate the perfection. I think you missed that point.
I mean, this is the Freelancer topic. Nonetheless, my point is also generic.
You missed my point that “perfection” is an arbitrary definition that’s entirely dependent on the rules you choose to play by. What is considered perfect by one set of rules may be forefeit under others. Your definiton of “perfection” is rendered valid because you choose to allow yourself to restart.
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Can we maybe not go through all of this again?
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