My take on it is that Richard just loves yanking a chain that's
particularly easy to yank and will invariably respond in a way that
allows more yanking.

Everybody has long since agreed in principle; it's just that some
people remain buried so deeply in the forest that they can't see it for
all the trees. Or maybe it's that they are buried so deeply in the
pile that Richard was mentioning that they can't find the pony that's
been there all along to ride out on.

All this wave BS is just mathematical abstraction to 'splain what's
really going on anyway. If one is smart enough to actually get through
the math without making computational or conceptual errors, he's still
going to be lost if he doesn't relate it back to what it is that the
math is explaining. His loss; too bad.

Cheers,
Tom

(Hope I didn't let your secret out of the bag, Richard!)