the other 99.99% of academics should reconsider their presentation style; the reason their papers don't spark such arguments is that they've given up on educating the ignorant the way scott does

you might say, no, plenty of academics teach undergraduates, and undergraduates are super ignorant. but undergraduates generally don't care whether bb(123456789) is computable or not unless that's on the exam, and their incentives run strongly counter to arguing with the professor if they're unconvinced; the way they've learned to play the academic game is by producing the desired answers, because that's what gets good grades, not finding holes in professors' reasoning

so i think people like scott and sabine hossenfelder are doing profoundly important work, and the groundless controversies around them demonstrate not the error of their ways but the astounding degree to which the current academic system is failing to educate the public