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I have 17 empty cells in my final grid after following the end game instruction - and still have some non words across. I chose to take “only the letter checked by a down entry must be entered” to mean all unchecked letters are left blank. Indeed at this stage there is real uncertainty about what these letters blank cells could contain.
After completing the end game that uncertainty is removed.
You could argue at that point only one identified cell in each across entry requires 2 letters and the instruction could be read to say only the letter IN THAT CELL corresponding to a down entry must be entered.
I chose to leave all the unchecked cells blank after the end game but this means you do not need to complete all the across clues for submission which seems a bit unsatisfactory.

personally, that seems like the wrong interpretation of the preamble to me - having blanks in the grid doesn't seem particuarly thematic or satisfactory as you say

as barnacle says below, interpreting preambles is more an art than a science and sometimes you just have to go with what you think is most likely the intention of the setter and what ties in with the theme

I read the "where" in "[w]here an across entry would require two letters in a cell" as referring to the location where the squeeze occurs, not the full entry. If the setter intended to leave an incomplete grid, I would usually anticipate erasing letters after completion. As Walter Sobchak might put it, there are rules. General practices, at least. But I see the alternative reading, and assumptions are always fair game.

Regarding the final step: in recent puzzles, if cells are intended to be left empty, setters have said so. But the direction was ambiguous. The solution is rewarding.

Brilliant “illustration” of the theme by Lionheart, to whom thanks.

Nice idea, but I do feel that not leaving real crossers after such limited number of changes makes it feel unfinished and like I’m missing something…

Although I only just realised the unambiguous nature of the substitutions now, which is quite elegant and I guess real crossers would be impossible!

My thanks also to Lionheart. At first glance it looked a little daunting, but it was a steady solve. The endgame was set up nicely, and gave a rewarding PDM.

I think real crossers after the changes would likely have been doable. Real crossers before and after would likely be impossible. Real crossers after would have been very nice.

Where two letters had to be squished into one cell, I wrote one as a superscript. This gave me real crossers before and after the endgame. Also I could read the full answer to the endgame. All very satisfying!

Good fun this one, nice and gentle in the busyness of Christmas

The crawfish was astounding

I just can’t see where the letter in 14 comes from - please can someone enlighten me? I see three occurrences in the second clue, one of which must move to the first clue, but none of them leave real words. What am I missing?