I'm not being hostile, I apologize if you took it that way. I'm just making a point about how so many dev's claim to have the right answer until you need to rely on them to get something done. Projects turn to a mess mostly due to things one single person cannot control. I don't know a single person, including myself, who've thought that their code didn't look like shit 6 months to a year down the road. I think we always get better and we'll always criticize what we don't know and understand. This includes mountains of other peoples code (garbage or not).
He did just apologize in case that person perceived something hostile when it was not meant to be hostile. He should not have apologized it seems. Damned if you do, damned if you do not.
