I absolutely agree with you! But "note why someone doesn't want to go to conferences any more" is not what this essay did. He systematically painted everyone involved as a bastard, simply because they like doing something he doesn't. He didn't even give any examples of people pressuring him to drink or treating him weirdly for not drinking… probably because there weren't any.

There's a huge gulf between "This turns me off, here's why" and quoting your wife, who is not involved in the situation, calling programmers terrible, as bad as bankers, based on your completely editorialized and unfounded comments about programmers who said something positive about drinking.