I think his point was that the original email was very particular to his use, and it might not have the same issues used by different people. So his public opinion of Scala wouldn't be him lying, it would be him generalizing it more. He was asked what the problems were so he answered. If it was a general post about the language, more care would have probably been given to point out both the negatives and positives. My .02 on how I read the various posts.