Nice job finding the optimal solution; there's still a lot of wasted space, but more blocks are involved in the solution, and it takes a bit of craftiness to find the right blocks.
If you wanted to improve this kind of design, I would recommend opening a second path to the goal that is either 2 steps faster or slower, while continuing to make more blocks be potentially useful.
Like Deathranger said, it's decent for thinking ahead, but there are two solutions, with more variants besides, and the construction is overall quite loose.