I agree that you shouldn't (always) follow the herd but if all great aviators that day took off except him, I'm not sure... He was correct and everybody else was endangering their flight? Pretty heavy allegation to all these pilots that day!
Not a SINGLE person has said that. Everyone is saying that if the PIC wasn't happy that HIS performance met the requirements, then HE wasn't willing to take off. Everyone else may have had the NOTAMS and known more about the ship than the UAL crew did.