While I think that Lennart could have responded in the past with more respect, I also believe that he's taken quite a beating from the community the past few years. Let's face it, he's the most hated person in the Linux community right now, and systemd is the most heated subject across the open source forums and community.
If someone was bashing my project as much as they are, I might have times where I act irrational because I'm so sick of people criticizing my baby. Remember he's still pretty young, and may not act as mature as we might expect but I don't believe he deserves as much hate as he's getting.
Just my 2 cents.