That comic, in turn, is just another efficient mechanism for evading criticism instead of answering it: as if the number of people making a criticism, whether large or small, has any connection to how valid the critique is. If someone was making racist remarks in a public venue and got a lot of angry pushback, would you dismiss that as "sealioning" too?
A fun exercise: Compare the definition of "sea lioning" with basic conflict resolution tactics. Then, try to explain how they're substantively different.