Their original complaint was about the project taking 20GB of disk space to compile. Also they did point out that the parser depends on a serialisation library

Their original complaint was about the project taking 20GB of disk space to compile. Also they did point out that the parser depends on a serialisation library, so you're also mistaken about parent thinking the dependencies are necessary. On another note, this pervasive kind of passive aggressive, hand-wavy, tribalistic, blind defense of certain technologies speak volumes about their audiences.