@thomasfuchs it can be hard not to take criticism of something you are passionate about without becoming defensive. Particularly in today's social media atmosphere where piling on isn't just common, but explicitly encouraged by the platforms. Maybe they weren't so defensive the first 10 times, but by the 4,000,000th "lolz crypto is completely useless because reasons" tweet they got bitter.
I'm not naive enough to think everyone has good intent, but I also don't believe everyone has bad.