I think blank slate is the common prejudice and simplistic narrative. Calling out the paper as bad science without giving any valid reason is stupid. If the argument had been that a single study is not enough to conclude the author's conclusions (which are not too broad). But one can say that to any study in a new/nascent topic.

But what is in the thread is that such a study should not have been published because it violates ethics, without pointing out the scientific flaws in such a study.