Personally we tend to avoid many puzzle caches because they are too difficult. But having said that we have claimed some either by solving the puzzle or by intuition, local knowledge and/or the clue to guide us to the location. We have shared notes with other cachers about solving puzzles but never divulged the final location (nor would we want anyone to tell us). We never claim a cache unless we sign the log sheet either.
In the end it all boils down to how one plays the game but we can understand the frustration of a CO who sets a puzzle and then finds the final location being shared around.