We're not talking about "the public" generally, we're talking about someone who has thought about a topic and possesses enough interest to write about it. One would think that in the interest of intellecutal honesty they would investigate previous work. If they haven't, it's a valid point of criticism of the work, and I have criticized the work on that basis, just as I would criticize someone writing on space-time who hasn't bothered to look into Einstein, or someone writing on electronics as if they're discovering Kirchoff's law for the first time.