He is, in fact, not mitigating the attack, and he is, in fact, by calling his non-workaround a mitigation, encouraging people to do ineffective things instead of patching. These facts remain true in the real world regardless of what you call a personal attack.

And yes, San Francisco has become top of the world for indirect fake kindness that transforms plain factual statements about the world into social offenses.

"The sun is bright. Don't look at it " -- RUDE!

"You might want to consider that the sun might be considered bright to some people and that you might be more comfortable looking at this other cool thing instead. But no pressure" -- gruff, barely tolerable