But today, most people hold opinions about LLMs, both as to their limits and their potential, without any real knowledge of computational linguistics nor of deep learning.
Here's another example in case you still don't get the point - Schrodinger had no business talking about biology because he wasn't trained in it, right? Nevermind him being ahead of the entire field on understanding the role of "DNA"(yet undiscovered, but he correctly posited the crystal-ish structure) and information in evolution and inspiring Watson's quest to figure out DNA.
Judge ideas on the merit of the idea itself. It's not about whether they have computing backgrounds, its about the ideas.
Hell, look at the history of deep learning with Minsky's book. Sure glad everyone listened to the linguistics expert there...