I think it’s useful to revisit things with the benefit of hindsight to better understand why thinks happened a certain way and how they might have played out differently. But I also completely agree that they offer no proof of alternative outcomes and the exercise should be limited.

Something like the viral adoption of a language for ML has too many complex psychosocial factors for a hot take counterfactual sound bite. And twitter allows for just enough space to stake a claim on some rhetorical ground, not much left to explore the detail required.