What about when someone (a) makes a deliberate project of improving something and blunders their way into being better at influencing people through trial and error? (b) as above except their trial and error is heavily guided by some kind of theoretical framework, some system? (c) as in (b) except it's been so long since they were actively trying to improve that they've internalised the new behaviour, so that they could probably explain what they're doing if pressed but they're doing it subconsciously?

If the intuitive drawing of the line is either incoherent or makes no sense according to one's moral theory then one can ignore it, yes? Whether one is entirely open about what one is doing is another question, it's rare that that's a good policy.