Not sure what there is to bash... Also, not sure what education your trying to pass on either. Just because a plug wouldn't be my first choice doesn't mean it's not a viable solution. The plug in question here is not a dangerous option, but an option a mechanical engineer would call "Good Enough". Good enough in the since that if anything was to happen at all from using one would be a super slow leak but not at all a massive tire explosion and catastrophe like you might be thinking. One thing that wasn't said or shown in that discount tire 2 paragraph guideline, is that before a patch/plug can be installed there are 4 procedure's to prepare the tire for the patch/plug. One of those is to use a pneumatic reamer to clear the hole as well as make it to a certain diameter for the plug to work as it should. This usually causes breaks in the steel belts but acceptable under tire manufacturers repair guidelines. Example: Nylon rope has hundreds if not thousands of single strands that make one rope. If 5-10 break, this doesn't cause the rope to break or even lose any strength at all. Writing all this has "Tire"d me out so....I'm out.