.... wait, what?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I realize this is picking nits, but it bothers me.
Maybe it's just because this whole section of the Silmarillion was reconstructed by poor C.Tolkien.

Not really. This section as published is almost - aside from certain de-archaising - the text of the conclusion of the Qenta Noldorinwa (1930), which Tolkien copied verbatim into Quenta Silmarillion (1937), and then left largely untouched (he made a few additions in the Fifties, like Ancalagon destoying Thangorodrim in his fall).

The unfortunate brevity and (compressed) nature of this final chapter, and the Fall of Gondolin, aren't CT's fault- it's just that there was no later text available than, in essence, QN.