When you prodded further, you got a good response, so while I think you didn't come out badly in that exchange at all, I am surprised that you are citing it as evidence of lukeprog understanding poorly.

I disagree. The final response was just as unhelpful; it's just that I didn't bother pushing the point. Luke tried to imply that the research he cited showed how to "dress fashionably based on magazines" yet not be consumerist, which is completely false.

I have little problem with bluntly telling people that they suck, and by extension don't mind less offending forthright communication, but I am leery of discussing people's work by evaluating how people's work compares to the popular perception of their work.

Well, there is a tendency among forums for people to automatically vote up anything that looks well researched, so it's important to know when that facade isn't holding up. And considering the number of times Luke gets corrected on his use of a source or otherwise crumples on any follow-up question, I'm worried this is one of those cases, and so I can't avoid implicating people for hasty upvoting.

But again, some of his more recent work looks to be more careful.