[nybsjytm]

Rigor here doesn't have to mean mathematical rigor, it includes qualitative rigor. It's unrigorous to include meaningless comparisons to prior work (which is a credible issue the reviewers raised in this case) and it's also poor writing.

[seanmcdirmid]

Qualitative rigor isn’t rigor at all, it’s the opposite. Still useful in a good narrative, sometimes it’s the best thing you have to work as evidence in your paper.

Prior work is a mess in any field. The PC will over emphasize the value of their own work, of course, just because of human ego. I’ve been on way too many papers where my coauthors defensively cite work based on who could review the paper. I’m not versed enough about this area to know if prior work was really an issue or not, but I used to do a lot of paper doctoring in fields that I wasn’t very familiar with.