It's really hard to walk away from being told you basically suck and know diddly squat about writing, let alone the entire science fiction genre (which is, of course, only the gee-whiz high-tech type of story, otherwise it's not *really* SF, just wearing an SF skin and "might even be called sci fi" (but not actually be SF, of course.))

So I'm envisioning this conversation instead:

"This cake is horrible. It doesn't make sense. It's not tall enough, and there's no frosting. You don't know anything about dessert at all."

"That's because it's not a cake at all. It's a pie."

(Oh, and I hope they figure out what's up! From personal experience, I can empathize that having a mysterious undiagnosed illness is frustrating and full of suck. (Sorry for repeat edits; this originally got stuck in the wrong place.))