My biggest question about this is did the guy not understand why the flag was called `MONKEY-SEE-NO-EVAL`? Because that name was my favourite part of the article...
Their main objection to the pragma would seem to be the MONKEY-SEE-NO-EVAL name; if you don't understand the reference, say you're a non-native speaker, or just have no idea what it's referring to, all you'll see is "NO-EVAL", and then get confused why the code suddenly allows EVAL everywhere. Levity and fun is perfectly acceptable, but is it just as acceptable when the language is less obvious for it's extended developer community?