It's all about personal tastes, huh?
Stop the presses! Homebrewing is about making beer that **I** enjoy, instead of what other people tell me I should enjoy?
Seriously, I could not agree more. I can't stand RIS, even though we all know that it's the only beer that can possibly compete with a DIPA containing enough hops to melt your tooth enamel. To me, RIS tastes like licking a burned tree stump. But people love them, so more power to them.
I have yet to brew a pumpkin ale of my own, though I have enjoyed some commercial ones (and hated some commercial ones, and been completely ambivalent about some commercial ones). But the author of this post has been doing pumpkin ales for fifteen plus years, and I have yet to see anyone say anything negative about his advice. I have seen a lot of "your techniques took my beer from good to great" and "this recipe was the best pumpkin ale I've ever had" type comments, so I figured it was worth an actual article.