> I don't think you should be criticizing reverse engineering here any more than you should be criticizing ...
No, sure, real reverse engineering is fine.
But when "reverse engineering" is used in the sense Theranos (and/or Holmes' defense team) apparently did -- i.e. tampering with a competitor's machines so they sometimes don't work properly, and passing off the sometimes-invalid results as super-duper hot stuff created by your new and superior WonderTech™ -- then yes, it darn well should be criticized to Hell and back.
Of course badly done reverse engineering can be bad. But that's not because it's reverse engineering; it's because it reaches incorrect conclusions that hurt people, just like not doing any reverse engineering at all. The problem that put people at risk in this case wasn't that Theranos did reverse engineering; it's that they didn't do enough reverse engineering.