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I would have considered the use of the Ad populum falacy more for use in terms of testable facts rather than opinions.

Is quality of language and taste opinion or fact? I could see the debate being vigorous on that one.

It’s a big debate indeed and I don’t want to get into it here, but I think I come down on the side of, “some standards are not purely popularity contests, but are based on other things.” There are a lot of reasons I think this way, but even if someone doesn’t agree, I do think a purely consequentialist approach is illustrative.

Would we have better food if the top chefs in the world designed our meals, or if the entire population voted on them? For some topics (including the arts) I think a purely subjective approach has worse outcomes.

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