Are exercises like this a: good use of anybody's time?

In this article, the author reflects on statistical approaches used by D. M. Heisey and colleagues in their study. He states that there is little recognition on prior distributions for variances in the smoothing models used in the study. He points out that Heisey and colleagues must retreat on strong assumption such as the disease-associated mortality and independence of sampling. He is also critical that the study does not deserve spending a grant money, unless if it is a methodology grant.