I'm not sure how you square "If you can't keep up then don't" with what sounds (to me) a lot like "I have an idea that I want to implement, but only if I don't have to learn anything new"
To try to be at least somewhat constructive:
I took PPK's argument as: "Trying to cram everything and the kitchen sink into your browser so that you don't have to ever write native code may be appealing, but it risks collapsing under it's own weight."
Which, to me, doesn't seem so ludicrous that it deserves to be shouted down.
It's not the learning or the hard work that concerns me. I'm all for that. It's proprietary walled gardens for the most part. I want to build apps that I already know Apple won't approve so that leaves me with a reduced ability to service my users until mobile web gets better.
The guy is clearly over the hill and his old glory is over. He made a bet to chase and document every silly and ridiculous quirks in legacy browsers and established a name in this 'field' during the Great Web Depression 2000 - 2005 now that these days are gone and no one is interested to listen to what IE6 or Microsoft dictates on the community and we're living in a true Renaissance and booming expansion, his desperation and frustration with losing bets and falling behind his peers are showing but his phone outrage and indignation are not fooling anyone.
He was asking for it by shunning modern and progress in web development and instead endorsing everything that's reactionary and antiquated in the field and his latest outcry hopefully the last would be just a blip on the radar and we would be moving forward nevertheless.
To try to be at least somewhat constructive:
I took PPK's argument as: "Trying to cram everything and the kitchen sink into your browser so that you don't have to ever write native code may be appealing, but it risks collapsing under it's own weight."
Which, to me, doesn't seem so ludicrous that it deserves to be shouted down.