does 0.33333... = 1/3 also seem inelegant?

No it doesn't. The reason that 0.33333333…=1/3 doesn't seem inelegant is that there is no other way to give the decimal representation of 1/3. 1.00000000… is vastly superior to 0.99999999… as a way of representing 1.

There is also the minor problem that there seems to be a conception that adding 9s to 0.99999, even an infinite number of 9s doesn't get to 1. The difference when you get the infinite number of 9s on the 0.9999999… is 0.0000000…0001.

You run into another communication problem using the term integer with computer types who may not have the math background. In computer parlance, 0.99999999… cannot be the representation of an integer. Neither can 1.0000000… There is no provision for representing a fractional part of an integer since there can be no fractional part.

Teach me to take a half hour to finely craft a response

OK, twenty minutes