I don't see any actual temper lost here.

In one case he points out that someone is making commits that have messed up a file's indentation, and to stop doing that because it's messing things up (they were).

In the other case he points out that rust's default format rules are wrong (in the context of version control readability, they are) and asks someone to fix them.

Can we not?

You mean, "stop using nice and spicy original content made by a popular person, to create high ROI articles"?
In this world when you could have an article when <insert movie-actor/singer name here> sneezes in front of the camera, why would someone not capitalise on someone putting years of past experience and thought into writing an essay?