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But being a down entry…. (Which may strike you as more of an excuse than a justification!)

Looks like both 30 and 32 cells were accepted.
Seems like the right decision.
This cut from the solution page.

The central 8×8 area of the grid, where answers were jumbled, represented the chequerboard with its four corners containing FATE and cells alternately shaded for the nights and unshaded for the days (entries with the northeast and southwest corner cells unshaded were also accepted).

Has that hasty afterthought in brackets caught the editors out? The NW and SE corners of the chequerboard must be left unshaded for it to be the correct way up.

Hope the error doesn't remain in the solution notes - it's been there far too long already.

I'm glad I left this one alone after the grid fill. I didn't know what was going on then & I still don't now that I've seen the solution. I humbly realise my limitations!

Although both 30 and 32 shaded cells were accepted, the setters' blog suggests 32 was intended (the "group" / "set" distinction pointed out previously in this thread was intentional, for example).

https://listenwithothers.com/2023/07/30/listener-no-4771-in-vino-veritas-a-setters-blog-by-raven/