Hi,
This is what makes photography so interesting, we all like different things and see things differently
The old street lamp was positioned in the ray of the sun on purpose and to me it makes the shot not ruins it, the shots taken without it are just borning sunsets of which i have hundreds
The sun behind the cross again was deliberate to reduce the flare and give the scene some atmosphere, i have other shots of both scenes however in my opinion the shots above are far better