> Honestly, I would have respected "I wanted to do it, I became obsessed with doing it, I knew it was likely dangerous and I can't quantify how dangerous, but it did it anyway because I thought it was important" more than this many-page attempt to mathematize the un-mathematizable.

Eh, I felt that already came across strongly in the article itself. He attempted to quantify the risk, but every avenue resulted in "it's fine, maybe?", and he chose to go ahead with it despite not having any dependable numbers.