Can abstract nonsense be helpful here?

Can abstract nonsense be helpful here?

Here a question for those among you, who teach homotopics/Algebraic
Topology at University. I encountered some questions that were quite easy
to solve in category hTop instead of Top (example 1, example 2). In my
answers I said that familiarity with categories was necessary to
understand. Can answers like that really be helpful to the student? If not
then I should stop with it. The student must be central in my thinking
when I answer a question. It must be not be a way just to expose my
knowledge (my flesh is weak).
You know the best what is helpful for your students. So I ask you.