So what WERE they trying to do?
BTW, here is a list of people who had criticized SICP. The list is full of heavy-weights:
Philip Wadler
Donald Knuth
Eric Raymond
Richard Bird
Paul Graham
Guy Steele
Robert Harper
Matthias Felleisen
Daniel Friedman
Christopher Strachey
Peter Landin
John Backus
You might find the authors own critique of SICP interesting:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34657535