To me it feels like the difference in positions is "this could be made better" vs. "but this is already so much better than before". Both are right.

Maybe I'm missing something important so far...

Maybe. I'm not sure if the original author's intent was to say how risc-v could be better or to say it is bad and people should use other (proprietary) ISAs instead.

I was thinking the same. RISC-V is certainly impressive and I'm glad we have it, but the original article isn't wrong in its complaints either.

It definitely could have gone with a less abrasive tone (as entertaining as it is), so it's no wonder it's getting some pushback.

Yeah the complaints in the original article are valid, but it's like complaints about Android or iOS. There are plenty of valid complaints against either, but neither is strictly better than the other.