I agree with you, through I am pretty confident the seniors were well meaning. Insecure in more then one way, but still well meaning people with no intention to cause anything bad.

It is not that CR is has no place in the process. It is that it should not be primary tool for teaching, mentoring and leading. Nor talked about that way. Every forum and blog posts talks about CR as teaching tool and every discussion about juniors puts a lot of emphasis on CR and none on other tools. A lot of people think and act that way.