As a comp sci prof, I don need any excuse to take an interest in computer science projects, and debate them in forums and such. But I also consider part of my job duties to advise the taxpayers who pay my salary about computer-related risks and scams; and surely you must agree that "scam" and "risk" command very big fonts in the bitcoin word cloud.
As a comp sci prof you have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to bitcoin. Here is one example:
Some clever bitcoin hackers may be able to create transactions that are valid on only one chosen branch. However, most transactions issued by typical users will be executed in both chains
Also you are clearly wrong about the blockstream guys too with this quote:
(Moreover, Gavin and Mike seem to be competent software engineers, whereas the Blockstream guys may be really unable to understand why congestion is bad, why the fee market will not work, and why LN will not be economically viable. As Napoleon would say...)
They do understand bitcoin more than you will ever do, but the difference between them and Gavin is that
they want to use the congestion to their advantage. You are really naive if you think that they don't understand stuff when it comes to bitcoin.
Wrong. Bigger blocks benefits sidechains which is behind Blockstream's whole business plan