and thought that my initial claim verged on patronizing for stating the obvious.

What's obvious to one person may sound ridiculous to another. Often does, in fact.

Surely you at least agree that the conversation in this thread has been derailed at places?

What, do you mean the original thread, or the pirate vs. ninja thread ? Heh. Anyway, the answer is "yes" to both.

For example, this immediate context appears to include fairly unadorned indicators of disrespect.

Patronizing posts tend to invoke that kind of an atmosphere. In any case, you keep saying that disagreeing with your conclusions is a "failure mode". You may well be right, but so far, I'm not convinced that this is the case. I am prepared to be convinced, however.