[a]: On my computers, I’ll use "dumb" quotes. Easy way to see where I typed a comment from, I guess.
I never knew you could do that! I've got very frustrated sometimes typing on an iPad when I really want a dumb quote, and, unlike on macOS where the dumb quote is the default and there's the convenient if baffling OPT-[ shortcut to get “ and OPT-SHIFT-[ for ”, I couldn't figure out what to do to my default smart quote to get a dumb quote. Thanks!
If someone can explain why it's not just egotism, please go right ahead. Otherwise, it really does seem like it. To me at least.
Other comments try to sort of deal with this problem in their explanations about soft and hard quotes, but they don't really deal with the part about it being disturbing.
What's so disturbing about using a feature available on your device? Especially when it does nothing harmful to the user, or recipients of that users communications?
Further, if you check my sibling comment you'll see that it is a common mistake for beginner/intermediate coders to paste these quotes into code. This is the source of the "cultural debate" in this instance. They are making a judgement about how this common copy/paste problem shows up in practice. Not a judgement about "proper usage".
It's honestly a little surprising that you took this so personally. It reads rather playfully in my opinion.