I would add that skating is not the only sport (or specifically Olympic sport) where the athletes are partially judged for doing it (whatever it is) "right/pretty" or for how they look when they are doing whatever. So for anyone to say skating should just be about faster, higher stronger without concern for whether an element was done right, because all other sports are only about faster higher stronger would not be correct.
Even for sports that are purely about faster higher stronger, doing it wrong/ugly affects the results. You make an error in form or technique, you don't jump quite as high, or lose time in a race, or can't lift as heavy a weight. Maybe your ugly technique only costs you a little and you still win, maybe it's too ugly and you lose because of it. No different from skating. Your routine is a little ugly maybe other things are good and you still win. It's very ugly, it cost you a lot of points and you lose.
When it comes to the need to do it right/pretty, the main difference I see between a judged sport and a "clocked" sport is that in figure skating if your technique is wrong/ugly you lose points measured in GoE or PCs. In the "clocked" sports your wrong/ugly technique costs you seconds, or inches (cm), or pounds (kg).
In the pole vaulter example, yes the jumper gets over 18 feet and wins even if they have bad technique and look ugly, but they probably would have jumped higher if their form was good. And by having errors in form and not being able to jump as high otherwise, they put them self at risk of being beaten by the jumper with good form who can jump higher because they have good form.
I don't think skating needs to apologize for the fact it is a sport that rewards doing it right and pretty.
True. But in other judged Olympic sports like diving and gymnastics, you still have to have the toughest technical difficulty in order to get the highest marks. The technical mark comes first, then the "presentation" mark. If you can do the most difficulty and look pretty doing it - that's even better. But you can't win Olympic gold just by being pretty. It is an athletic competition after all.