Re 1ac, I see it now – you’re probably right.
Or is it like this: “Through” (by means of ; using its letters) ‘a lens’ “snapping” (in its possible meaning of ‘catching’) ‘I’ , we’ll get “like the Mediterrenean”?

Overlooked in 28ac that little word “in”, so saw it as (LAD OK)* ‘to wear’ (having outside) “bank”.
But I do find “to wear” a bit of an unusual anagrind, though OK.

Still not completely convinced by “gig”.
According to Chambers it cán mean “sport”, but in its meaning of “fun, good-humoured mirth”. Well, let’s give Aardvark the benefit of my doubts.

When I looked back at this puzzle, after your post@9, I felt that Aardvark’s head is full of good ideas, but that they are not always transformed into smooth constructions. At times it looks like he wants to be original or at least different, which is something to appreciate. But for me, it just doesn’t always work well enough.

I know, it is very easy to be a bit critical standing at the edge of the field, and I have no intention whatsoever to depreciate Aardvark’s ability as a setter.
But where it clicks with one setter, it doesn’t with another.
OK, promise, will do the next Aardvark!

@Sil van den Hoek: I haven’t solved much of Aardvark either and I think I struggled partly due to unfamiliarity. My parsing some of the clues you’ve listed:

1a: The anagrind is ‘snapping’, ‘through’ is the containment indicator for “I”. I thought this was a great clue.

28a: The anagrind is ‘to wear’, as in to go through attrition.

30a: I agree this is a bit convoluted, I thought of it as I’ve seen this before.

17d: ‘gig’ is also listed as ‘sport’ in Chambers…I read that as the definition with the “?” also nudging us to think of the specific type of sport i.e. BOAT race.

Fantastic wordplay. A friend and I test ran Chambers ‘crossword completer.’ against it.
A brilliant solve.

Some of my Q’s (Quibbles and/or Questions):
1ac:
Where’s the anagrind for ‘a lens’? Is it ‘through’? And if not, what is ‘through’ doing there anyway? And the definition (“like the Mediterrenean”) for SALINE – I think it is a bit loose, although I appreciate the misdirecting use of ‘like’.
28ac:
POLKA-DOT is defined by “Type of design”, I guess. But we need also an anagrind for “lad OK”. Double duty for “design”? I do understand double duties most of the time, but in this case my intuition tells me that I don’t like it at all.
30ac:
“5th programme” for LIST E? Bit convoluted, or am I missing something?
11d:
We need ORA from “doorway”, so we take the even characters. Aardvark, though, lets us ‘avoid’ the odd ones. Technically it’s OK, but again my intuition is against it.
17d:
A “gig” is apparently a boat, but just like Lenny @5 I don’t see the (Boat) RACE. Maybe Aardvark wanted to write a kind of (semi) &lit, but then he failed IMO.
19d:
Yes, Gaufrid, I think you’re right with RON being ‘NOR’ upside down, clued by “surfaced – and not”. But. That dash there spoils it all for me. I know generally speaking, punctuation doesn’t exist in Crosswordland, and normally I can’t be bothered too. Here though, it looks odd (just by looking at it, I mean).

Don’t get me wrong, most clues were all right.
And certainly from a technical point of view.
But the style of clueing as a whole didn’t feel right to me.
Probably it’s just me.
Sorry, Aardvark.

I think Tin Ear is TEAR (a ladder in a stocking..) with IN = hip/fashionable inside all being an ear problem – a problem to lug…