How is this black and white thinking? The sentence was "A PhD reduces the risk you’ll accidentally do this", not "a PhD will prevent this" or "you're an amateur if you only have a BS". It's taking about risks and likelihoods. That's not black and white thinking, that's pretty much the exact opposite.

Heaven forbid anyone without a PhD engineer something like a spacecraft. We shouldn't let NASA get away with so many amateurs on the payroll.

You do know that most group supervisors have graduate degrees right? (At least at JPL, not sure about other NASA centers). Seniority tends to be based on your highest level of education (obviously there are exceptions - but exceptions are exceptions because they're rare, not the norm).

There's no "single PhDless engineer" who engineers a whole spacecraft.