I think the non-connected 'tile' was interesting simply because they hadn't yet found a connected one. When stuck solving a problem it's often helpful to look a

I think the non-connected 'tile' was interesting simply because they hadn't yet found a connected one. When stuck solving a problem it's often helpful to look at what solutions would look like if some of the constraints were relaxed. But in fact, the connected solution ended up much simpler than the disconnected one!