I’ll say this: your approach would absolutely work fine as well. Definitely better than the theatrical. But that doesn’t mean that mine doesn’t work either. I’d say both of them work just as good. I only chose this path because I feel like it slightly edges the other out on clarity.

Thing is, I’ve already written the past chapters from the perspective of the message being private. So why should I go back to change everything for something that is just as good as what I already have?

That’s just my two cents. You’re free to disagree.