This seems unnecessarily harsh.

My prior experience with science popularizers is that they are typically telling a potential, and either objectively likely or subjectively hoped for, narrative plausibly supported by the evidence.

"Science literacy" is one of those squishy concepts that lets folks give grace and continually learn and improve the view of the universe.

Because like many, I never lost my inner 11 year old and HOW COOL IS IT THAT WE CAN OBSERVE A BLACK HOLE?!?