Sometimes yes although I can think of a few times he's just flattered to deceive when he did go the right way. He does race a lot though, similar to Lloyd when you consider the cycling he does on top which is easy for us to forget. His run at Jura last year shows he CAN run long rough stuff as well as anyone, and with reference to your first point Bryan you can bet the lines he took weren't as good as Rigby's when he got the record so he probably ran a longer course!
Perhaps we just expect him to win everything and wonder why when he doesn't, but he's just not as consistent as Simon over that type of race. Over everything else he is consistently there or thereabouts, apart from the shorter faster races (borderline A Categories e.g. Dufton & Paddys Pole)