Just had an interview this morning. To almost all of the "how would you go about this" type questions, my answer was well, it depends on the data type / volume / customer needs.
Your response - totally. Similar experience: I was asked in a technical interview to use the "correct" collection class given the (very academic) sorting problem. I responded with "there is no right answer, so my answer will be the simplest one". According to them that was wrong. The "right" answer was the best performing scenario (although more complex of a solution).
So, again. "It depends".