It's not so much sympathy as disgust that decent, honourable men are being hung out to dry, while those who set their terms of reference, and who shaped the role of the modern IPTL (not least by their treatment of Lang) get away without a word of criticism.
Perhaps Baber and Pledger deserve some criticism - but far harsher criticism is deserved by the successive Governments and Ministers who encouraged the drift towards using IPTs as a simple conduit for funnelling work (and risk) to the Design Authority, and towards reducing the independent role of QinetiQ, and who actively discouraged IPTs from showing any independent thought or initiative.