I'm having trouble seeing how Gladwell could reasonably compared to Daisey, a disgraced fabulist.
If I understand him, the parent is responding to this question of yours "Why isn't [the blogger] spectacularly successful too?" The answer is "ethics": some people don't follow easy paths to success because they care about what they write (say, do, etc.). I doubt you really disagree with that, but I find your first post odd. You go out of your way to defend Gladwell, even though you seem to find his thinking pretty weak and his corporate connections too close for comfort.
Yes, Gladwell writes well, but is that all that matters?