What people say about you means little; only what you say about yourself is really important.
Valve basically said they have weak programmers. As a programmer for many years, I'd NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER admit something was too difficult for me to learn. No programmer worth his salt would. I'd never admit I couldn't learn a new architecture and learn it well. It's called pride, and this man is absolutely shameless.
It would be like a boxer admitting he didn't want to fight someone, for fear of losing. Or a baseball player asking his coach to take him out of the game, because the opposing pitcher threw too hard and he couldn't hit him. This guy is absolutely shameful. Even if it's true, did he really have to admit it, and make people sick? He could say how difficult the PS3 was if they did write programs for it. Then he could say that as someone that conquered it, not out of weakness because his developers were overmatched. Ugggh. Disgusting. I don't know any programmers who would be so shameless. I don't get it.