@Kevinjohn Gallagher -I don't understand why you keep saying [one of the core team] instead of naming names. Everyone on the core team speaks for him/herself and we all try to be careful about being clear about when we're speaking from our own point of view vs when we are communicating an official project stance. From your mention of Mike Little, I'm guessing it was Peter Westwood? I'll ask him to stop by here and comment on this, but here's my opinion on vocal minority:

Who is right is almost always a subjective matter. People being vocal, whether majority or minority, always think they are right. Engaging with the flamers distracts from getting things done. We have sometimes lost a week's worth of productive time on core b/c the team spent a day responding to the latest community uproar. (Followed by later uproar when the release is late?) As Chip pointed out above, feedback and constructive criticism are welcome (more so if you are actually contributing to the project), but aggressive/name-calling/unprofessional flame wars are not. If this is just a hobby or social outlet for someone, it can be hard to remember that for others it's their job (either paid or volunteer), and as such we try to keep things professional. If you wouldn't say something to a co-worker in front of your boss at work, it probably won't fly with us either. And if 30 people are giving feedback, even if it's negative feedback, I can tell you that the 25 who are being polite and respectful in tone while they do it will be heard. The 5 who want to start a riot and use unprofessional language? Not so much.