That's why I renew my impression that he's here only to get the standard "Rejected by BAUT because my ideas were too real for them," badge.

Wrong. It is too easy to let speculation become too ungrounded if you don't bounce them off a hard wall now and then. Like accepting all that KT's research implied without getting the skeptical review of her work. Accept some of your criticisms as valid. Reject some as need for you to debunk, as in applying motivation for story sells. Her motivations were sincere.

I found most English teachers in college very grounded and quite good at applying common sense reasoning and deduction. They expanded my horizons considerably.