Off the strict definition of the topic but my 2p. I'm a long time lurker, student pilot and occasional poster. The threads I value are most often those that GtE, PilotDAR, BPF, Pace, PeterH, Mad Jock, BoseX and the like contribute to. These are, IMHO, what makes this worth bothering with.
I don't know GtE (or any of the others) personally, though I hope to meet them in the future, but cannot believe that he would do anything to merit such a response, except inadvertently. The sooner this gets sorted out the better, or I too am off to the dark side - if nothing else because that's where the interesting discussion will be.