@Thomas Frank -

I love ... a TOOL

Indeed. And we obviously have stongly loved some of our tools, for eons. Some tools are just, or as you put it, "simply" tools. Lots of tools, though, carry much more than their objective attributes. Software tools have been especially-prominent examples of this, since the beginning.

I bet these same people ... have switched IDE’s

Yes, but you see, KevinJohn Gallagher didn't just switch. He laid out a detailed, itemized, organized criticism of WordPress. And published it to the world. He very much launched an attack.

He did not just make a decision for himself. He set out to publicize his grievances with WordPress, as a "campaign" to influence others to adopt his opinion ... and follow in his footsteps.

Some of KJG's assertions were highly debatable ... and while we discourage excess, we readily become even more emotionally involved in our debates, than we do with our tools. ;)