Nielsen often is quite radical. This is i.e. displayed by the layout of his own website but he is one of the most respected usability experts in the world. He has been fighting for more usable websites for quite some time and the prizes they award to e.g. Intranets are qite prestigeous.
IMHO it is worth listening to his point of view. You can still disagree but if you think twice about what he is saying it often makes sense.
If you think about the password example, how much more useable has the iPhone's password-field become because you see the last letter you typed?
Yes, because we should always be afraid of saying unconventional ideas.
He might be wrong, but he has started a conversation around it. Passwords are a usability nightmare, and we definitely can have something better.(Mobile password fields are god compromise IMO, show last char for 10 seconds and then blur.)
I think it depends on context. For my email account, banking and network logon there's no question that passwords should be hidden. My hackernews account is not such a big deal.
Sure you did, because if a person says one thing that's wrong (according to you) then all the things he/she says must be wrong.
There's gold to be had just about anywhere, if you simply filter that which suits your diet then you'll come out way ahead by simply skipping some of the stuff and getting to the rest.
If I would disregard the opinions of everybody with who I disagree strongly on one point there wouldn't be many people left.
IMHO it is worth listening to his point of view. You can still disagree but if you think twice about what he is saying it often makes sense.
If you think about the password example, how much more useable has the iPhone's password-field become because you see the last letter you typed?