Unwarranted criticism
Some of this crit is just so avant guard.
In any field, there's always the newest, trendy, pure speculation. Experimentalist SETI folks are simply completing one set of tasks oriented around the 'common' hypothethis which targets solar type stars. If these SETI workers were castigating the ideas of searching for Dyson civs, then there'd be valid criticism. Instead of dissing those experimentalists already busy doing SETI radio and optical, the critics should instead bolster the 'new' theoretical analyses such that they're robust enough to stimulate additional novel means of searching instead of whining about those with the stones to have already put their efforts behind their ideas.
I'd love to see some credible new search strategies.