> You can't really, it has to be experienced to be understood.
No, I'm pretty sure everyone knows what fragile software feels like.
Disclaimer: I've been using fragile emacs as long as most HN users have been alive.
It wasn't a "defense", so much as a statement of fact. I enjoy using emacs, but I don't go around trying to get the whole world to use it. I know that emacs occupies a very specific niche and is not for everyone. I don't spend a lot of time worrying about how much market share emacs has, it has enough to keep marching on, and that's about the extent of my concern.
But the point remains. You can't really understand emacs (or a lot of other things for that matter) in the abstract, you have to use it. So use it or don't, but you can't really offer meaningful criticism without have it used it a fair amount. There are plenty of warts on emacs, any emacs veteran (which I'm certainly not) will freely acknowledge that. But it does seem that most criticisms of emacs come from folks who haven't used it much.