It's not at all empty. Specific expertise does not imply general knowledge, and shouldn't be assumed.

"Commenting on" does not equal historian of mathematics aware of all the past politics and drama from 100 years ago. There's no reason to assume an expert in applied mathematics is also a historian, especially when their statements are somewhat in conflict with history. And, there's nothing wrong with that, if they have a knowledge gap in some boring past bickering when they're one of the best in the world at what they do, ffs.