[cosmotic]

I'm not sure the point was about tone. It was letter by an academic for an academic touting the former's intellectual contributions and apparently intended to be publicly displayed. I would have expected something more structured, easier to follow, and better targeted.

[handrous]

It does seem rather inside-baseball for something released publicly. Maybe the audience is only a subset of the public, though, and this was just the simplest way to get it to them.