On the other hand, the thread is a comment about the challenge of not contradicting yourself too much, not a claim that doing so is going to substantially impac

On the other hand, the thread is a comment about the challenge of not contradicting yourself too much, not a claim that doing so is going to substantially impact the work. Pretty much every creative work has contradictions and discontinuities that people gloss over, even (or especially) stark ones in critical success. The people who really get riled up about it are a very particular kind of person and not one I even meet outside of internet forums.