I read the book today - I couldn't put it down. Its well written and the humility and honesty of it comes through... I don't see any conscious self-aggrandisment in there. Yes, he says he was an ace at fighter school. Well.... he was.
The question I would ask detractors is "given the avalanche of warnings, failures, and conflicting information how would you stack up?" The point about Kevin Sullivan is that its not really about what he did on that flight as much as that he had the qualities that enabled him to qualify as a Top Gun at the US Navy Fighter Weapons School in the first place AND the subsequent F-14 and Mirage training were the same qualities that equipped him to sort it then fall apart AFTER it was all over. He's very candid about that and the subsequent PTSD in the book. Those passengers were damned lucky there wasn't a child of the magenta line up front.
The only slightly weird thing is that he refers constantly to his daughter, but never his wife - whom he presumably had the daughter with; but thats his prerogative if he wants to keep his private life, well, private,