As a retired captain for a major carrier, I heartily agree with Clog's post. I also hate second-guessing the actions of any other captain when I wasn't in the cockpit at the time.
Without passing judgment on this particular incident, it's my feeling that it may not be just the newer ATC controllers whose heads are in the wrong place these days.
I've been retired for over ten years now (hard to believe), but even before retirement I was already noticing company encroachment into newer pilots' thought processes.
Although they won't admit it, airlines generally dislike "Captain's Authority", viewing it as a threat to "Management Authority" and heavily promote (at my company, at least) contacting dispatch for any little thing that doesn't go exactly according to plan. Even among the younger ex-military copilots, I would sometimes hear the question, "Shouldn't we contact dispatch?" whenever something like holding vs. diverting came up.
Don't get me wrong..... dispatch is a very valuable resource and I relied upon them frequently for input into my decisions. But when you're "real busy", so to speak, asking dispatch to make your decision for you wasn't the first item on my checklist.
I fear that the mentality of deferring to "higher authority" may be creeping into the left seat, and that sort of mindset includes ATC authority.