yeah, I remember injecting flash objects with javascript wrapped in cdata, so the w3c validator confirms my awesome coding skills in green, good times. now I treat validators as useful tools for double-checking syntax, and nothing else. it validates more often than not anyway, but it's not that I care.
invalid code doesn't mean shitty code, and the other way around - being valid doesn't say anything about the practical quality of code. know your craft = know the rules + know when you can break them.