I decided to read the guardian piece, some of the user comments, and listen to the Financial Independence podcast in order to develop an opinion that is a little less... middle of the road than the one I've been expressing so far.
I think I'm at the root of the divide here. FIRE is fucking cool. A lot of people get really geeked out on and, and it's why we're all here. Frugality is an important step on the path to financial independence. But if I were to rank in order, the steps to achieving a kick-ass, FI lifestyle, I'd do them as follows:
1.) Have a high income job
2.) Get a cooperative partner
2b.) It really helps if they have a high income job too.
3.) Watch your spending.
For a lot of people pursing financial independence, 1.) and 2.) have already been met. Which means the whole, "Watch your spending" thing, really is the marginal difference.
To a mass audience though, that doesn't play. It'd be like blogging about a road-trip across America, but in each blog post, you discuss how your windshield wipers helped you get from place to place. Yeah, they were important during the rainy parts, but the engine and transmission were doing the heavy lifting.
To white collar professionals who have been living fat and happy on bloated spending, blog posts about how you cut out restaurants might seem eye-opening. This is the main audience of FIRE blogs. At least it was a few years ago. To the average income public though, for example, those who read The Guardian, you're describing every day life as "frugal".
The "painting the kitchen cabinets" thing caught a lot of flack in the comments. That's because even caring about the color of kitchen cabinets is already a rich person's concern. And then on top of that, they think it is particularly frugal of them to do it themselves instead of hiring a contractor. They're getting rightfully roasted on that IMO. It's tonedeaf.
It's nice that they acknowledge their privilege, but there is getting it, and then there is "Getting It". Thinking the kitchen cabinet story (or really their entire story in general) would play to the readership of a large newspaper shows that they don't "Get It".