The most charitable interpretation of the response I received is that the standard of discourse on this site is that I shouldn't discuss any topic until I have familiarized myself with the literature on that topic.

This is still coming across as kind of defensive. Logically extrapolating from your assertion that most of the discourse on this site doesn't live up to the standard, it doesn't follow that cryonics should not be given a privileged status, e.g. as one of perhaps a select few topics where we insist on holding oneself to an ultra-high standard of discourse. Why would it be a less charitable interpretation to claim that gwern cares more about asking smart questions on cryonics than on most other topics discussed on this site? It's not like most topics have a direct bearing on the survival of billions. Is there something about cryonics that makes you think Harry Potter fanfiction deserves equal standards?

I'm not saying scholarship isn't laudable in all forms, but surely it's okay to have priorities.