Problem with that situation was that the Joyent guy was commenting on Noordhuis, an employee of a direct competitor to Joyent. So to many it came off as political opportunism to screw with Strongloop and not a sincere evaluation of the situation.

I haven't seen the commit in question, but it seems like there's a balancing act here between gender neutrality and avoiding awkward phrasing. It's just an unfortunate fact of English that being gender neutral all the time leads to awkward prose. Sometimes readability wins.