Dunno what prompted this discussion and/or dunno what went on several years ago. What I do know is that I see the OSR and Storygame folks as having very different goals and have no idea why there should be real conflict between the two. My take is that the OSR is more interested in playing games as they were done back in the 1970's and 1980's while the Storygamers are interested in advancing more modern mechanics to allow story to trump random rolls. If one were to draw a Venn diagram of the two game groups I suspect there they find very little in common, so fighting over the "right way" to play seems futile.
It does seem interesting for an author to refer to his own game as "sleazy", however.
My feeling on the situation is that while the OSR is no more or no less virtuous than any other group of human beings, by and large the OSR is content in being left alone to it own thing. We all know we are not in the mainstream and as a rule most in the OSR don't think that there will be a second coming where OD&D, BECMI, or AD&D 1st edition is the dominant RPG of the industry and hobby. It is sufficient that the level of technology allows individual and small companies allows them to produce professional level works for the games they like.
Part of the Storygame movement is an idea that they are the next evolution of RPGs. One of their main sites had Roleplaying Games Version 2.0 as part of their header at one time. (
http://www.story-games.com/forums/). Along with the diea that Dungeons & Dragon in its various editions was the poster child of what was wrong with Roleplaying games version 1.0.
So here comes along the OSR, a bunch of people that are not only DiY Publishers but did by deliberately targeting the very game they ridicule. And now that we are decade in, it is obvious it has been successful to the point where it collecitvely sells about as well as any other 2nd tier RPG publisher and has a huge range of product covering a wide range.
Since the present era centers around the instant communication of the internet, we get the hear EVERYTHING they bitch about, (and they likewise get to hear what we bitch about). And since many people involved in the OSR and Storygames are stubborn independents a "vigorous" response often results. Which is public as well. And it escalates from there.