Trust me, Ken; I did think about removing them, and while there may arguably be reasons for doing so, in the end I still chose not to. <While I've been thinking of how to write this reply, the comment has already --in effect-- been made that removing power lines (or whatever) is difficult, and while, yes, removing them may take a few minutes, there's nothing especially difficult about doing so.> That choice/decision was made during the time I otherwise removed, modified or altered a number of other 'things' I did deem remove-worthy distractions. And to illustrate that, compare the shot I posted with the (obviously rasterized and reduced, but otherwise untouched) raw (or in this case, a Fuji RAF) file, and you --and anyone else who'd care to comment-- will see the changes and modifications I ultimately chose to make.

What I find particularly interesting, though, is that you mention the lines as being a "distraction". While it's not my intent to quibble on about --or necessarily question-- what is or what is not a 'distraction' in an image, what I consider to be 'the more important consideration' is the decision-making process itself, and ultimately, the end product that results.