Hi Cleopatra,
I think that it's a very good point that you've made and if you visit Big Daves's Telegraph Crossword Blog -
http://bigdave44.com - you will find that only
hints are given on Saturdays and Sundays when it's a prize crossword.
On Saturdays and Mondays, when I attempt to complete the Telegraph's two general knowledge crosswords, I quite often have to use the Google search engine to find an answer and it's amusing to note that there are people who take the time to post the question on Answerbank when, more often than not, the actual answer is staring at them on the same page...
If I know that the crossword is a
prize crossword, I will only give hints.
Regards,
Caravaggio