Really guys? Really...
If you're able to read this much stupidity into a quite reasonable (in my humble opinion) email, it's sad.
The intent was obviously for us to hold at the gate till departure time instead of departing early and thus not exacerbate the problem. If slowing down enroute is possible - fine. If not - fine!
Simple really.
This is called managing, and is what we should expect our manager to do.
BOF