I understand the point you're trying to make. I think you're missing my point though. Proof of work. He is a cryptographer, a true cypherpunk OG, but his opinions dont have weight because he doesn't work on core? Satoshi credited him in the white paper after all. If we're going to use appeal to authority as an argument, then he's in pretty good shape, in my opinion. Also, I think @Adam Back's recent input on this discussion has shown an enormous amount of nuance which seems to be missing from the two sides doing most of the yelling. Either side could pick things he said out of context and claim that he's on their side. In fact, they're doing that. But my greater point is using an appeal to authority argument is flawed in the beginning. It's a bad argument, first of all, but it also alienates everyone who feels like they don't have a voice. And it continues to propagate the point that this off-used meme is making.