limitations with the data
  method was eventually... proved correct

Does sound like they're blaming the data; though his "method" could well refer to his general method, not to every exact detail.

Philip Roe is himself a famous pioneer in CFD, so I lean towards trusting his version more... he said the forecast was of extraordinary 100mph winds, pretty specific. The bad data would have to be wildly bad to yield that! OTOH it inevitably happens with instability.

However, I really don't know. Maybe it's become a folktale, to illustrate instability, since it's a big deal in CFD!