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Here's an example. A couple years ago, during a scenario I'll not mention, a PC at my table saw a warship coming up, fast, on the party's boat. The PCs set sail away from the pursuer, but it was a losing proposition.
So, one PC made short work of things with a spell of invisibility, a potion of levitate and a feather token: anchor. Now, I could have announced, "Fine, but there's another ship coming up, right behind that one." But why do that? Why rob a player of a great story, that we're still telling, years later? Because it wasn't the story I had in front of me?
I think it depends how important that ship was to the scenario.
If it was a home game, and especially a sandbox setting, roll with it, and something else will challenge the PCs sooner or later.
If it was a PFS scenario, they're much more structured (I hesitate to use the word 'railroad', as that has negative implications).
If the writer was expecting the PCs to get on that ship (voluntarily or not), to hear a chunk of exposition, meet a hostage, find a McGuffin, fight a specific encounter, then what are you going to do for the rest of the slot?
The PCs watch the ship sail off into the sunset, not knowing all their faction missions have sailed off with it, they land their boat, and ...then what? Three hours of crickets chirping?
You may have to rescue the scenario somehow, while still giving them the benefit for their good idea.
"As you watch the ship pass under you, you notice it has only a fraction of the normal crew, a chest of treasure is being sorted by the skinny bosun, and several drunk sailors are leaning inattentively on the rail..."
"Hey, maybe we could take these fools, after all. What damage would a fully-laden rowboat deal, if we dropped it on the helmsman?"
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Ways a gm can annoy players?
The one that always gets my ire is when the gm assumes a new to the hobby player will "just know" "proper" tactics.
They barely have a grasp on the basics of the game.
Expecting more than basic use of the combat rules is fool hardy at best and elitist at worst.
Especially when real-life tactics have little in common with game-mechanic tactics.
Things that ought to work in real life are nerfed or forbidden in game, or locked behind long feat chains.
"What do you mean, I can't kick an enemy that gets within my weapon's reach? I do it all the time. I teach longstaff fighting; I was sparring that way, last night. There's videos of me, on youTube. I can show you, right now, on my phone."