When You get asked the same questions fifteen times in a row by plastic newsreaders, see if YOU don't tend to get more-than-a-little "impatient". :)
You know what I think it was? We (civilians) tend to focus on MPH...like Oh boy! Now it's JUST 160 MPH..Bastardi's point is to focus on the science of the 908mb..he said the wind speed will basically "obey" the pressures and the wind speed will fluctuate- so when Bill suggested now it's only 160...Bastardi just lost it.
Nothing personal. He's had a lllllllong 36 hours.
You're right, of course, but there's more to it than that: Joe B. has ALWAYS been all about using weather foreasting as a public service/public safety thing. He gets irked any time somebody starts getting giddy about the possibility that something might be leaving/weakening/etc -- when he knows it really isn't. That's the case here.
If there's some idiot out there thinking "Well heck, this thing is weakening -- prolly be only a Cat 3 or less at this rate", then that's exactly the kind of person Joe wants to protect but being blunt and erring on the side of safety.