I guess I'm not surprised to hear that Buttigieg emphasized the good intentions of the people he was disagreeing with. The likely explanation is that Buttigieg is a grownup, and this is how grownups in professional settings typically behave with regard to people they are trying to work and find common ground with. I realize it may not be common practice among pundits, who are more inclined to say things like "these people don’t have good intentions — they have a worldview that is wrong and bad, and they need to be stopped." But in the rest of the world that's not how smart people generally operate, and it seems like an odd thing to criticize Buttigieg for.

100% agree with you these people are annoying. But for most of us, dealing with annoying people is part of the job, and you can do it well or poorly.