Whack-A-Mole Plotting

Lately, Ive run across a number of novels that suffer from the same structural and plotting flaws. I believe this is a result of misunderstanding how the various plot skeletons work, especially the journey-based ones.

To refresh everybodys memory, the basic plot skeleton goes something like this: Main Character has problem. *MC tries to solve problem. MC fails. MC tries again; repeat from asterisk until work is almost as long as needed. On final iteration, MC succeeds in solving problem....