I don’t recall using “gussied up.”
I merely noted that the term was quite civil in my networks over the whole of my life. It usually meant someone was being a bit proud or high falootin or snooty beyond reason or justification.
You didn’t. Poe did (#45), pejoratively. You jumped in to defend Poe by saying that the term can be used non-pejoratively. Fine. But Poe used it pejoratively:
“Personally, I don’t see what is being called for as “needful” by CiV as being anything more than a gussied-up version of a world empire.”
You got the response you merited.