As the author of the 'diatribe', I'm concerned that a personal account of my experience with a programming language and my reasons that I'm lacking motivation to continue to program in that language has generated this type of response. Yes, it was personal. Yes, it hurts to be rejected. Yes, it's a part of life.
I felt that Rich's response was fair. There is so much frustration and pain in the search for perfection. He has given his heart and soul to the language so of course it was expected. I'm really glad he still cares so much for the language. It's rare to see such a raw, passionate reply like that and I know that the language is in great hands.