I'm always surprised when people get so agitated when I bring up his books (Clean Code being one of my all time favorites). Even if you disagree with some of the specifics, if there's one big takeaway like you said, it's to develop your "thoughts". He has thought hard about all of these things, and will force you to as well.
I imagine it's like if you were trying to be an olympic marathon runner, you'd study things like humidity and shoes and arm motion deeply, and he kind of does that (function naming, nodes per block, comments, test coverage, et cetera). Even if you don't agree with him, as you suggest read it and play "devil's advocate", and you will be forced to think about details that will make you a better software engineer.
I imagine it's like if you were trying to be an olympic marathon runner, you'd study things like humidity and shoes and arm motion deeply, and he kind of does that (function naming, nodes per block, comments, test coverage, et cetera). Even if you don't agree with him, as you suggest read it and play "devil's advocate", and you will be forced to think about details that will make you a better software engineer.