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I have a "t" at 25, which should be a "p"?

T is correct as the first letter of the answer, which gives you R/V for the message.

There's another way of getting rotational symmetry, tonynannini (not mirror symmetry).

Having fouled up the alphabet, I found the end-game fine, it helped that the letters to be shaded were in order with the first and last 5 clearly visible.

I see what you mean now, Tony, apologies for dimness.

Agree with you Drxx that "shade" is pushing it a bit, but "fill in" or "grey/black out" probably was impossible given the constraints on the number of clues.

I've completed the puzzle, but don't understand why there were no bars in the grid. How did that have any relevance?

I think I needed a rewrite of the entire preamble, loge - it just wasn't helpful enough for me (but I'm not sure I could make it any better).
I thought about 'erase' but that would leave scope for blank cells (and that would be even worse).

...sorry, 'instruction' (not the preamble).

I put the bars in as I went, pompeydb - they certainly didn't create any difficulties and the grid-fill was still very quick (so, if it was to make the puzzle tougher, it didn't really work - and I can't think of any other reason).

I’m guessing the lack of bars was because we end up with a different type of separator? It may even have been a subtle hint. Whatever, this one had a PDM and a half, which was truly satisfying. I fear Xanthippe’s ears would have been burning while I was struggling with it, though!