I think he's saying the OP is being contradictory.
"I don't mean to boast, but I'm awesome" would be a similar statement. Trying to defeat criticism by deflecting the critique at the root, while actually fulfilling said critique is a common argumentative tactic that, while noble in its attempts to avoid offense, is intellectually dishonest.
That only follows if you think that a language being made for "people of a certain level of intelligence" is a negative assessment (even if I find the wording crude). I don't think that, because I don't think it precludes "more intelligent" people from getting good use out of it.
The designers are not omniscient, and their desires mean nothing in the real world, beyond how the product of their will is actually used.
All that's just a long winded way of saying that who it's made for and who finds good use out of it are not entirely equivalent. As such the tptacek's statement seemed very neutral to me.
"I don't mean to boast, but I'm awesome" would be a similar statement. Trying to defeat criticism by deflecting the critique at the root, while actually fulfilling said critique is a common argumentative tactic that, while noble in its attempts to avoid offense, is intellectually dishonest.