I totally agree that filters are very useful and they certainly have a role to play - The point I was making was simply that shooting techniques can also turn up useful pictures; Remembering that not everyone has a camera that you can easily attach lens filters to (or perhaps a strong enough filter to hand).

There are clear advantages to using filters - And I should also mention that while I edited my photo to reduce the lens refraction flare I could have done additional work to reduce the effect in 'burnt out sky'

Regards
Andy