I think it's great to express detailed skepticism about experiments like these, but I find the high levels of attitude to be tiresome. It doesn't add anything of substance to the skepticism, and it seems like an anti-pattern for good science. Scientists need to maintain some level of humbleness about their certainty. Not be credulous, but not be sarcastically smug either.

NASA is not universally populated with geniuses, but they're not high school idiots. I don't think they should be ridiculed for reporting a best-effort attempt to test surprising or controversial results. Otherwise how would surprising results ever be found?