I always hate these kind of pissing contests... What I find sad is when folk resort to attacking and demeaning each other in public over something like this.
The vast majority of engineering is not published IME/IMO (beyond basic principles and academia), and the expertise gained by experts often resides in their own experience and knowledge base. I am glad my professional reputation does not depend upon defending every well-established engineering principle to a flock of internet denizens eager to dispute every point and then decrying my lack of basis because I cannot, or am simply unwilling to, point to freely-available published research. I spent much of my career doing very neat things that were never published (some were, and many are in the bowels of some gov't think-tank archives). Often the demand is to prove something very basic and covered in any college textbook, albeit specific to the subject and specialty (e.g. Ohm's Law is actually a more complicated formula than the basic form always presented), or complicated enough that pointing to one or even a few resources is challenging and rarely worth it. Explaining something that took a semester or a lifetime to learn is tough in a post or two.
Another recent debate for me was over whether passive bi-amping can actually improve headroom -- it can, and I took a stab at proving it, but the other party stood on an old and inapplicable FTC amplifier test standard without understanding its shortcomings. I offered to simulate it but he pointed out that was not the real world and was no proof to him. I said to read any college opamp or amplifier book and even gave examples but he insisted I didn't know what I was talking about, had no papers to prove it, could not show lab studies, etc. I don't have a lab study to prove the sun is hot, either, but believe my physics professors and the black body experiments done in college -- for which I also have no proof, of course. Maybe we're all idiots. But now I have a guy saying I essentially don't know what I'm talking about because I have not published a paper and questioning if I even have a degree (I do, but have no real desire to post all of my info on an internet forum -- the government and other companies have done a fine job of releasing my identity as it is -- and my offer to share privately was denied; probably a good thing as I am not sure I would trust the guy with it).
Things get out of hand too easily when not face to face, no real checks and balances on the exchange, no visible feedback to know the feelings and intent of the other party, etc. As a means for personal communication the Internet often sucks.
Still, there are some experts on internet fora, and plenty of very competent amateurs. Amateur meaning you do it for love, does not imply incompetence or a lack of knowledge, but there is a wide range of expertise from both professionals and amateurs. It is very hard to maintain composure when your established knowledge base and/or long-held personal belief and experiences are questioned and subsequently thrown under the bus (things I think apply to both parties, and often to all parties).
Ah, well, apologies for the long post, put our 17 year old lab down yesterday and feeling very melancholy today.