Krugman says here though that the heavier editing of his opinion columns only started a ~year ago, which was 6 years after the blog ended. So presumably those six years were fine enough.

I overall agree with you on punditry and I didn’t much read Krugman; I don’t much read any of their opinion columnists. But a point to Krugman in that he can write about actual facts whereas Ross, Bret, and David can only write about vibes.

Yes, but he is complaining about the change in policy on his Opinion articles.