> I wonder if the people objecting to your statement would object as strenuously had you had phrased it as “evidently mentally unwell”. The word “ill” seems to have triggered people into reading more into it than what was actually said.
This is a reasonable hair to split, I agree with you and I think it might have gone differently (though "mentally" itself will trigger people, and there is a lot of certainty that he must be a particular arsehole simply because of the history of WordPress, or Gutenberg, or whatever it was that coloured their judgement).
I think there's also, from some people (sometimes including myself), a negative reaction to armchair diagnoses of mental illness. I think it's a problem because it's a faux medical diagnosis made by someone who is not qualified to make it, based on public statements and coverage that are too far removed from the reality of the personal situation to be a fair judgment.
This is a reasonable hair to split, I agree with you and I think it might have gone differently (though "mentally" itself will trigger people, and there is a lot of certainty that he must be a particular arsehole simply because of the history of WordPress, or Gutenberg, or whatever it was that coloured their judgement).