The guidelines explicitly ask not to comment on flagging (as you did above) or downvotes. Feel free to express your opinion on TechCrunch or the aforementioned author in a civil and substantive manner (perhaps taking extra care if you're worried you may be downvoted), but follow the guidelines. You're likely to get downvoted for that alone, rather than for the comment itself.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Maybe you're not TechCrunch's intended audience? You sound like you'd be happier reading other things.