Which wording was vitriolic and angry?

I wasn't seeking to establish my own authority in any way: "X is brilliant, we should listen to them" being countered by "there are lots of people with similar levels of experience with this thing who have many different opinions (I happen to be one of them)" isn't an appeal to authority. But sure, I could have left out the ("I happen to be one of them") part without changing my point much.

TFA is not about someone sharing their preferences. It's a direct call to not use many features, and claiming that to do otherwise is a mistake. Here's an example of sharing preferences:

"I've often tried to use C++'s variadic function templates, but I've found that just using initializer lists tends to be simpler and more readable".

Here's an example of how TFA would put that:

"do NOT use variadic function templates"

> Which wording was vitriolic and angry?

“I haven't seen a less useful article about C++ in a long time, and as an HN reader, that's really saying something.”

The tone of all your comments reads as oddly intense imho. Perhaps not your intent. Opinions may vary.

> TFA is not about someone sharing their preferences. It's a direct call to not use many features, and claiming that to do otherwise is a mistake

Yeah that’s fine. The whole piece is an opinion piece on what someone thinks is a good approach to C++ development. There is no value in hedging every single bullet point with a bunch of flourish imho.

In game dev C++ circles nothing in this list is particularly controversial. It’s just writing down what many/most devs already did.