Well shanma, what they DID read was a blatant attack on some of us by name and the rest by implication and association.
Take a lesson from dogs. If you snarl and bare your teeth, you cannot expect a pat on the head.
If you say you have done with GN for its manifold sins and weaknesses, you cannot expect everybody to say"Gosh, you are right, we are rubbish, sorry. Can we still play?"
What reaction did you honestly expect?
And having bidden us farewell, who was to guess it was merely "au revoir"?