The commenter's comment [1] is absolutely fine, though.

Hipp's response is also fine! The only thing that wouldn't be fine is if someone inappropriately reacted to that comment as an insult.

[1] https://fossil-scm.org/forum/forumpost/7840137009?t=h

It's possible I'm misreading the tone of "has ways to go" and "niche volunteer-based SCM".

If anyone comes across as rude in that exchange it's Richard. Maybe it's just his style (I don't have any experience to judge by except this comment), but he comes off as very abrupt here.