[pumblechook]

The saddest part is that this kind of 'feedback' isn't out of the ordinary, but is actually pretty common. I've found in my own reviewer feedback a striking tendency towards pedanticism that would put Internet grammar nazis to shame, not to mention completely asinine comments that give no clue as to any objections the reviewer had ("You aimed for the bare minimum, and missed!").

This is, to me, just one example of the perverse incentives in academia. You are constantly pushed to publish, yet the gatekeepers who ultimately decide whether your research sees the light of day rarely give it more than a cursory glance, and many have no interest in giving helpful feedback to actually, you know, make the work better.

[jerf]

Bikeshedding isn't just for programmers. We just have a jargon term for it.

(And remember, "bikeshedding" isn't just "arguing forever": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bikeshedding It's about arguing about the things that are easy to understand, to the exclusion of the probably-more-important, but more difficult, issues.)