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I have a complete grid and a message from the extra letters, the first part of which makes sense (so an error somewhere later?) but that's where I've hot the wall. I can see a 6-letter word which is begging to be replaced, but by what?

The 3 words from the extra letters are mechanical (and the last is correctly spelled).

...letter counts for the 3 words are 12, 7 and 8 (and I'm sure you've spotted the candidate to change, cockie)

Very nice. Once the error in the second word was spotted all fell into place. Not sure about my artistic endeavour though.

Not keen on grid art. I have all the elements and presume the "bar" we have to add is at the bottom of one cell between the two parts (?) and
how exactly is one supposed to embellish? With a few squiggles on the highlighted cells? If it's supposed to be more elaborate than that aren't other letters in the grid going to get obscured...

As per usual I've fallen at the last 😡

I have the name of the competition and have erased the S... P... but now can't find what "appropriate" word needs to be replaced by the last man standing. Are all 6 cells in a single answer or do they span more than one?

Cancel that, saw it as soon as I posted:-)

... and then both parts embellished (in the solver’s own style) ...

As if I needed an excuse to get the pens out 😜😂

I can see the second, third and fourth letters of the theme - in consecutive cells - in four different places, 3 reading horizontally and one vertically, below the replacement. Given their surrounding letters, I think either the lowest horizontal or the vertical possibility must be the correct choice for highlighting but am uncertain which of them to choose. I am also unsure of the positioning of the bar but in order to leave real words am looking at 33d & 39a (which BTW I cannot see in Chambers 2016). Please could someone assist with my dilemmas ?

Although the preamble might suggest the highlighted word is in two pieces it's only the highlighting that creates that effect - the 8 letter word is contiguous (and crosses the 6 letter word).
I think the bar you're suggesting is a strut, and could be a part of the embellishments - the bar mentioned in the preamble is the shortest possible linking device (a grid bar).