Flavors.Me != Profile.io in the same way StackOverflow != Quora.
flavors.me has a better design and presumably offers more service hooks than profile.io.
Saying that profile.io is a niche product in the light of flavors.me just seems like PR-ish for "less appeal". :) If it's vertical, it can't be the same as a service with a wide appeal.
From what profile.io looks like to me now, it's just flavors.me with poorer design and less traction. You can try to beat flavors.me in design (good luck with that), or you can try defining your own project and set it apart from the competition.
Information on profile.io is very scant, so I know very little about the project. I'm outlining a gap I'd like to see someone figure out and fill. I hope the project wasn't inspired by AOL's acquisition of about.me, because people in the Valley still can't wrap their brain about that. :)
It is not entirely inspired by About.me but we got some inspiration from it mainly with the design.
If you look at my previous HN submissions, Profile.io is a byproduct of my previous project - Launchset. It's just a much simpler version.
Seriously though, why the negativity? As somebody who loves to build apps, I never judge other people's app in its initial version. All ideas/apps evolve.
If the about.me and appeal remarks seemed hostile, it was because I didn't know that I was talking to one of the creators. (Like I've said before, HN need to highlight that somehow.)
If that's not positive, I honestly don't know what is. And to give you some honest advice (I know how you hate that, though), your attitude to feedback isn't going to help you succeed. Quite the contrary.
Helping people is a little like being a parent; to your children, you're a parent first, and a friend second. You may have to make some unpopular decisions, but they're in the best interest of the person.
They built it while riding the bus, what more could one ask for?