I am solving a problem that is claimed to be NP-hard elsewhere, say in the paper [XYZ]. The NP-hardness provided in [XYZ] is complicated and uses advanced techniques. After some research and work, I succeeded to give a simple and clear proof of the NP-hardness. I am wondering if this is considered as a contribution or not? I am trying to motivate my work but I didn't find a similar path.
I don't know if this is the right place to ask or should I go to academia?