It's not a contradiction. He never said to me that "eye focus" wasn't important, just that minor changes in the rebuilds aren't important. For instance, the Ernie after the original had kind a smashed head that was even more football shaped. It apparently didn't bother Jim. And the second generation Cookie Monster had a completely different shaped mouth. It went from being pliable and rounded to hard and almost duck-billed. But he didn't care about those changes.