User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Sorcerer Magazine, Issue 42: June 2015/@comment-3290324-20150702004148/@comment-3290324-20150703195002

The thing is that she does use her powers properly. She's strong and she takes her opponents down. Period. If her opponents abilities are such that they can't be taken down, she outsmarts them. And I'm not really seeing the issue with this because Gray does the exact same thing. The only difference is he's not anywhere near as powerful as Erza, and has to do it more often. :/

And another thing you seem to be forgetting is that sometimes there just isn't a "witty" way to take down your opponent. Sometimes a battle just calls for a clash of strength. Which is why Gray's blood ice wasn't enough to take down Ultear. Was it nice and clever? Yes. But her strength was far too great to be outdone by that. Hell, Lucy is by far the most intelligent member of Team Natsu, but she would be wrecked by everyone else on the team because, despite her intelligent, it's not always enough to win a battle.