So if I feel bad for someone who lost his dog, I'm looking down on him as a "lesser"?
If you "feel bad for poor him", you are referring to him in a way that implies his position is lesser.
"Poor $noun" is nearly always derogatory towards $noun. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a neutral or positive use for "poor $noun".
Verbal communication is imprecise enough that people will overlook "poor $noun". In text, you have the opportunity to proofread and revise your statements, so "poor $noun" drastically changes the meaning of the phrase.
Perhaps the condescension in my writing (of which there was none) was not so much in the signal as it was in the receiver? Your reply is absolutely dripping with it, window-dressing a cry of "is not / is so" with: "however", "furthermore", "therefore", and "by definition."
The only thing that would have made it worse would be putting it into pseudocode!