> Sniff test and exposition are style.Peer review journals and conferences have (typically explicit) style guides. The argument that peer review arbitrarily rejects papers unsubstantively is a strawman; peer review councils do not maintain that meritocratic results-driven analysis are the only barriers to entry.
>Ding it for not analyzing her primitives but don't then call that security analysis. Do the security analysis.
Authors introducing novel results with cryptographic considerations typically perform their own analysis and publish that in the paper with the result. I was not referring to my observation of her own insufficient analysis as if it is a formal analysis on my part, I was observing (correctly) that she didn't do enough of her own formal analysis. There is a modicum of author-provided proof-based assurance that 1) is considered in the peer review process and 2) forms the foundation for formal cryptanalysis by peers in the community. In other words, there isn't yet enough for cryptanalysts to attack (or more precisely, the author has put the onus of analysis on other researchers, instead of providing specific, rigorous claims which they can empirically refute).
It comes down to respecting time. In attempting to be accessible, the author is not being respectful of other researchers' time. We don't need to have the birthday paradox explained to us, we've understood that since Intro to Statistics. The paper is 58 pages because, "think of the unwashed masses who can't understand our work!", but in attempting to appeal to those beyond the ivory tower, it's just become circuitous and over-indulgent. She didn't have to write in this style to make it more accessible (and the relevant mathematics has a lower bound on how accessible it can be, anyway).
It is not respectful of qualified cryptanalysts to not even provide a precise set of proofs for your claims. She uses phrases like, "PCG is a middle ground between security and performance." We cannot analyze that, and it's not for cryptanalysts to review every single claim that comes across their desks. This is why the author of xorshift+ didn't even provide a cryptanalysis in his scathing review.
If you're not going to sufficiently specify your claims, don't be surprised when the academic community ignores them (even if they're valid!). You are arguing your point from a first principles approach to meritocracy and the fairness of style-based assessment; I am arguing that as a practical matter in the research community, there is a reason this is not how novel cryptographic primitives are introduced.