Bleah, flat...what's the dif? It's often a game of semantics anyway..I generally just don't beat around the bush and I never edit a person's work without some measure of assisting that person gain a "different" vision, which may or may nor be better - just different.
It never helps a photographer to tell them everything is "spot on" "sharp" "perfect" or any of the plethora of other adjectives strictly as platitudes for a lack of saying something really constructive. Perhaps, I am a tad too brash but my disclaimer has and will be until I retire - "I have 60 kids a day in my face with alternative, 35mm and digital images...I wish I had the time to be sweetly solicitous, but I don't." They have to pass a strenuous Cambridge exam at the end of the year, and it is my job to ensure they do just that. (92% pass rate for the last 12 years.)
It has always been my undertanding the intent of this or any other forum is to help the other guy become better with constructive criticism...using "atmospheric bleah" was my opinion which I felt described the scene exactingly...and I had the histograms to back me up.