A well-deserved win indeed.
On the subject of verticals, I personally don't like correcting them too much, and I have a threshold (a number on the slider) I try not to cross.
That's because doing that in post is something "fake", that can't replicate the real thing, unlike white balance.
I'll try to explain (although you probably don't need any explanation): let's say we shoot a cube slightly from above: the verticals will be divaricated at the top, and we will see a bit from the top of the cube. If we correct the verticals, we still see the top of the cube, and we would not see it if the shot was taken level in the first place.
So, as far as I'm concerned, I do a slight correction, but rarely a full correction - unless distortion is minor, which wasn't the case here.
YMMV, IMHO, my 0.01$