I don't think it's necessarily wrong. A lot of critics of FIRE, myself included, see it as inherently self-limiting. I like many concepts of FIRE, but I don't want to FIRE and have to rely on frugal or being a cheapskate the rest of my life if I don't have to. A lot of people don't want to have to reuse sandwich bags to save 3 cents on their budget or buy almost expired meat and make a stew.
And it's not ironic he's plugging his own blog. That misses the point. His point is that many people who "FIRE" aren't really doing it because they have side hustles where they are making money or rely on that side hustle to support being "FIRE'd". When I have enough to be financially independent I don't want to rely on a side hustle to make any money... and a lot of people see relying on a side hustle for extra "spending" cash to not really be FI. I'd like my savings to be able to keep me at a nice standard of living and provide for some luxuries here and there or travel costs.
I’m a little confused by “self-limiting”. What if you’re imposing limits on yourself, and those limits you’ve identified don’t exist for others?
If you want to FIRE without extreme frugality then... FIRE with more money in your budget. Save and invest, and accumulate enough assets (by exchanging your life energy) to FIRE the way you want.
Some people want to FIRE like Jacob and Pete, and for their personal reasons. Those bloggers are writing for that leanFIRE audience. If you don’t want to FIRE that way then it’s better to find bloggers who are writing more to your style of FIRE.
If someone is dependent on a side hustle (blogging? selling online classes?) for their FIRE, then they’re doing it their way as well. I’d have to let the Internet Retirement Police draw the line on the distinction between “FIRE and never earning another dollar ever again” versus “FIRE with a real estate or blogging or coaching side hustle”, but I suspect that both people would be equally happy.
Meanwhile Sam is blogging for the same reason that I write: we can’t stop. There are millions of other bloggers out there, and at least one of them will resonate with your interests.
For every blogger like Sam who gives the appearance of needing blogger money to FIRE, there’s at least one more blogger who’s donating all of their blogger money to charitable causes which are important to them. Maybe Sam attracts a bigger audience by bringing the drama, or maybe the other bloggers don’t need a bigger audience and don’t have to care... they just keep writing about their lifestyle and concerns for their audience without worrying about getting more readers.
Regardless of the personalities (and their credibility), the math is independent of the marketing: assets of 25x your annual spending. After 25 years, the research seems to have hammered out enough verification to make it worth implementing. You can complicate that part all you want (30x? 50x? annuities? real estate? stocks?) but when you reach FIRE it’s at your standards.