It does serve to benefit the reader. Knowing if someone is new to what they are discussing makes the reader less likely to take what they say at face value. W

It does serve to benefit the reader. Knowing if someone is new to what they are discussing makes the reader less likely to take what they say at face value. While you should still be critical of people who have experience, it probably will hurt you less or give you different insights if what they are saying comes from experience. For example, I'm fairly certain the world of web programming would be way better off if lots of those tutorials had some sort of "I didn't know what HTTP or arrays were a couple of weeks ago" disclaimer :|