I understand your position, as you see a 'hack' as a quick and dirty trick to make things work; but in this instance, hacking is taking on its more pure form of

I understand your position, as you see a 'hack' as a quick and dirty trick to make things work; but in this instance, hacking is taking on its more pure form of manipulating something according to the rules of the system it exists in, in a way that was not originally understood or intended :) It's very much a hack.