I think the gloating is deserved, particularly as a message for the HN community as it currently evolving. There was a fairly large pile-on of people vehemently disagreeing with tptacek despite him presenting an entirely reasonable argument that turned out to be close to the truth. Declaring victory on this one may help the community to remember to not just blindly believe anything written on the internet due to the fact it conforms with their strongly held concerns and beliefs.