God does not have a vendetta against elevators. God decreed specific sets of rules that make actions on the Sabbath forbidden, as interpreted by rabbis over the generations. When new situations arise the rules are applied to the new situation to see whether it is permitted or forbidden. Sometimes, like with elevators, the consensus is that the new situation is forbidden. In such a case, if there is good reason, the question becomes: "is there a way that we can tweak the situation so that it doesn't fall into the forbidden category?". For elevators, the answer is yes.
This still follows the spirit and letter of the law, because the spirit of the law really only applied to the reasons that made the elevator problematic in the first place and not to the whole concept of elevators.