I see a lot of shock at the negative comments about RMS here. Those who are appalled at the lack of respect here need to understand that there are a lot of people within the tech world that have developed very complicated feelings about RMS over the course of the past 20-30 years.
I mean, sure, a lot of people who don't know a whole lot about him or haven't had to deal with him over the course of decades might have shallow knee-jerk opinions on him: they hate him, they love him, or they barely know who he is. But I suspect a lot of the anti-RMS sentiment that you might see on someplace like HN comes from a much deeper place than that.
I don't hate the guy, personally, and I do think that the good he's done has outweighed the bad. I also agree with him on quite a few fronts, to a degree. However, he has alienated a LOT of people over the years for no good reason other than his own personality issues and a seeming complete lack of a reflective nature or an innate sense of perspective or empathy.
I feel sorry for him more than anything else, because I think he's a deeply troubled guy who unfortunately ended up in a life path that sort of rewarded him for staying in his deeply troubled state. He's always had lots of admirers and supporters, not to mention grants and speaking gigs. As a result, he never had any external forces that might compel him to grow up beyond a certain point, intellectually or emotionally.
I think a lot of the more nuanced, deep, and well-fermented RMS hate you might see stems not so much from total disagreement, but rather disappointment from wasted potential. He's somebody who's had a lot of great ideas from which so many great things have sprouted, but he's a terrible steward for those ideas. He ends up making it about him somehow, or takes so many things to such ridiculous extremes, or justifies his ideas for all the wrong reasons, or intentionally alienates the people that he should be trying to build bridges to, that he ends up discrediting the kernels of brilliant truth that are at the heart of much of his philosophy.
So, there are a ton of people who at one time or another were inspired by RMS in their larval stages to value freedom and sharing and openness, but grew to see him as an impediment to those very ideals. I'm one of those people and I so wish that it didn't have to be this way. I don't think you're seeing people criticizing his views on ties, so much as you're seeing disillusionment at a much deeper level with RMS' personal and intellectual failings, which are pretty broadly on display even when he's writing about trivial things like ties or hobbies or cell phones.