I like to compare code with print media here.

You know you hate it when you read oversimplified articles. Dumbed down. Few facts, simple sentences. This translates to code that I link to beginners: Trivial, naive even, implementation, nothing is too complicated, but it's lengthy and full of unnecessary steps.

On the other hand you know this ivory tower style. You read a book from well-known philosophers. You read a science paper on a complicated matter: The style often seems to be very lengthy. Words are not reused, you have to show off that you can know a dozen synonyms. While the actual content might be pure, good, interesting - the style of writing makes it hard to follow. This style blurs the original line of thoughts. This is clever code.

Elegant code is somewhere in the middle and just as subjective as preferences can be. You can spot and describe bad cases easily, but perfection is different for most of us.