I'm quite pleased with the way my essay on subduction phrases addressed some of the problems with examples head on.

I think that similar considerations apply here. Real life is terribly messy and non-fiction examples are likely to be lengthy and ambiguous to the point of obscurity. A better criticism is that the fictional examples need to be followed up by much longer real-life examples that address the practical difficulties. That however is more in the nature of "directions for future research" than an outright criticism.