And no, people who think they are being "brutally honest" while forgetting compassion or even basic fucking manners are not doing so with others' best interests at heart.
They are just being assholes. There are bonafide reasons for that behavior, and they deserve a measure of compassion themselves while receiving that message, but don't try gilding the orifice's behavior.
Question: "Do you think I should rewrite this code?"
Honest answer: "Yes, definitely. You've made some mistakes that will make this impossible to maintain, such as...".
Asshole answer: "Yeah, this code looks like shit".
As the author noted, this tendency is symptomatic of people with high intelligence, but questionably intact egos. I left Mensa because I was tired of all the petty bickering resulting from people "being honest" about their opinions; if I had a nickel for every time someone was called a "moron" for stating their political leaning...ugh.
Nobody is above civility and tact.
Being "Brutally Honest" while combining that with tact is a rare communication skill that is an essential part of interacting in polite company. Having that skill and developing it has done more for the effectiveness of my teams than any other skill I have ever developed.