It's not "pretentious", it DOES give him something else to say. Namely the difference and progress made (which he goes on to mention) since the early beta (more than a year ago). The "typical" tester he refers to may be one of the hundreds of thousands accepted recently. Fair enough really.

And "i have been in alot of them" is hardly licking his own arse, he is merely attempting to give his comments weight by showing he has multiple points of reference. Again, fair enough.

I appreciate these "memoirs" as i too am a beta tester and have read countless reports talking about many specific details, however very few look at the picture as a whole.

He is right, Mythic have worked hard, and it shows. There is no reason to believe this wont continue.