Sometimes taking attention away is not that bad. There's rules of course in a good picture, but it all boils down to what the artist/photographer wanna present.
I don't think he wanna show still life per se. Then again, who except k, knows what he wanted to say?
You're not wrong in saying that the carpet is out of place, and neither am I right to say the carpet has it's place there. At the end of the day, it's all subjective. And frankly, I think K is having hell of a time seeing people discussing about his picture, rather than saying "nice" or "I like XXX".