That entire unfortunate thing could (likely) have been avoided by clarifying who the advice was for, I think. In the context of writing for a scientific magazine, all of those recs are reasonable, and if it was framed that way I think fewer people would have felt personally aggrieved by them.

Even if that’s true though, the dogpile-like response to it sucks. Like, if 2 people have already argued that it’s ok to use “decimate” to mean near-total destruction, perhaps just leave that alone? We’re not trying to run any more people off this website.