This is the kind of response I was hoping to see. I'm not qualified to comment at all on Clojure, but I was interested to see what people thought who were part of this community.
I wish more people would address these points. If Clojure really is fine the way it is then argue that point positively rather than chip away at Strawman arguments, which, at best, were only tangential.
Finally, I'm not so sure about the public-private point you are making. There's a reason we protect free (public) speech: being publicly criticized is much harder to ignore than private requests.
This rant has become front page material on Hacker News. That's pressure. If there really is dissatisfaction amongst the Clojure community, this won't be the last time we'll be reading about this particular exchange.