You sound like you're snarkily disagreeing with d23, yet the core of your disagreement is based on something that he/she didn't say. No one is saying criticism

You sound like you're snarkily disagreeing with d23, yet the core of your disagreement is based on something that he/she didn't say. No one is saying criticism is bad; obviously if anyone had a default position of never expressing criticism or disagreement, nothing would ever improve, right? But there is absolutely a personality type that thrives on thinking of one's self as being smarter than everyone else, and constantly trying to prove that via relentless negativity or contrarianism. If you rely on such people for insight, you will generally end up being less informed than if you hadn't listened to them at all, because their views are based on boosting their own ego by trying to appear smarter than everyone else rather than from an intellectually honest attempt to get at the truth. At least, that's how I interpreted the comment you were responding to. Maybe you've never met people like that; if so, you're lucky. The one good quality such people might have is as a continual Devil's Advocate, in the sense that by disagreeing with all conventional wisdom they might make you take a second look at your own beliefs. But I really feel like it's everyone's responsibility to be their own Devil's Advocate; relying on other people to fill that role isn't constructive. I guess what I'm really getting at is that there's no shortage of negativity or contrariness out there, and contrariness without insight is no better than agreement without insight. In fact, it can easily lead you astray if you're not careful.