Sorry, but he was no "more than right" than the takeoff distance remaining on this flight was "more than enough"... the controller flagged the potential problem, the controller asked the question, the crew ignored the obvious warning from ATC that perhaps the chosen intersection may not have been appropriate to depart from... there is no blame on ATC here. The "barrier" you speak of was unable to be raised any higher by the controller, who was not privy to the calculations and decisions that were made and taken on the flight deck. The choice to take off from D5 lays solely and squarely with the flight crew, who messed this up royally.