Pratchett did not get the case wrong, he merely dug into the existing language, much as he dug into history and philosophy. What we allow ourselves to become is largely a reflection of what we absorb, rather than the total possible. Language, which is both older and more experienced than we are, always contains more than we realise.

@katatahito Not true, it simply does not meet your desire for a proof, but that is not what everyone needs. One merely has to consider Henry James and how much has been written in order to explain his writings and his seemingly contradictory meanings. Finally, the question was 'Does X make sense', not 'How does X make sense' or 'Why does X make sense'.

Is there any reason why 'the last' could relate to something else in the text, maybe something time related? Are you reviewing the paper, or preparing it for submission? If it were the latter I would just mark the change and move on.

Perhaps also something that can be used often, like 'an unwanted task'?

Normal painter work hours is an assumption with no basis in the sentence. This is one of the problems with teaching by context-free phrase comparison, failing to remember that the grammar will work at its most base level: what you see is all you have. Like you I would not have considered this in the past, but having spent several decades proofreading translations done by people with language degrees, I can see that many of the problems comes from this lack of consideration. As a former co-worker once said: "articles must be easy, they take so little room in grammar books".

There is no reason why we should not use 'applicable' for physical things, because 'apply' is used for both physical and non-physical things. In this case, however, it is the question of use that is applicable, not the actual lens on the camera. As to what the poster intends, only they know that.

My question is would one use 'orienteering' while driving a car or other vehicle, or even using a bus or rail system?