This is the money quote from the article and the cause of much trouble in the sciences. How many classic economists (more akin to sociologist/psychologists) were driven from their craft by technicians wanting only pretty, perfect formulas?
If the pointy heads don't ever leave their ivory towers and get into the field they don't know if their theories help or harm. Whenever I meet liberals and they talk about poverty I laugh in their faces. I'm with the poor in their homes and involved directly in their lives. Liberal solutions hurt the poor and most of the poor know it.
The controversy comes from the Harvard and Ivy League types who know they know everything. Thereby dismissing the calls of reality from the field.
Bretz had the last laugh — he lived into his nineties, and was finally recognized for his contribution to modern, secular catastrophism near the end of this life. But he put up with lots of crap for decades, ridiculed and/or ignored.