Out of curiosity - what makes you think that the author of the link above, Chris McDonough (incidentally an author of the Pyramid Python web framework), is "deeply involved" with the NixOS conflict?

It is a firsthand account of someone in the community. They referenced no sources and gave a description of events based entirely on memory. They claimed their own involvement and interest in the outcomes.

Right, but I don't see a better way.

Do you think an outsider (ie. an impartial person) be able to provide a better summary?

Even as outsider has to get his info somehow, usually by interviewing those involved and then filtering stuff.

If the person is involved in a situation and recounts a history from their perspective it is not reporting. It doesn't matter whether you think they did a good job or not. A combatant in a war writing their evaluation of it afterwards is not 'reporting' and neither is what he did.

So now we're comparing the NixOS community to a warzone? Is it really that bad?

An analogy is not a literal comparison between two things. It is a way to describe something by pointing out relationships between things and comparing the relationships. It does not literally compare NixOS with a warzone.