I assume that the complaint was not "no one should ever read the Austrians" but rather that it's not appropriate introduction to economics.

One may think that string theory is sound, but still think it unwise to introduce someone to physics starting with string theory.

"Individuals should make their own judgment about the persuasiveness of Austrian arguments"

I agree with this, but it seems wiser to do so once you have some basic knowledge of more mainstream economics so that you can critically compare the two schools of thought.