It's not cheeky, it's desparate. He proposes an honest and well thought through idea that he spent a lot of time on, and someone he looks up to just behaves like a complete ass. Junio et al. do nothing but thinking against him, instead of with him. They'd do better just not responding at all.
I followed the discussion and read it exactly opposite. Ram was putting the cart in front of the horse ("I really need you to start reviewing the code now." see replies [1,2]) and everyone else involved in the discussion wanted to understand the benefits first. Junio was never dismissive of the idea, he just requested a coherent argument of the benefits so that real issues could be discussed. It is understood that submodules are not a smooth workflow in many cases, but Ram's proposed change would be very disruptive and most stated "benefits" of his design are red herrings.
I agree with you on the tone of the conversation, but from my -- admittedly biased -- view, submodules are an abomination, and any serious proposal to come up with an alternative should be welcomed with open arms.
Ramkumar may have taken the questions directed at him the wrong way, but IMO the questioner shares equal fault for that. Know (or learn) your audience, and tailor your responses so you you achieve a good outcome. "I'm super frustrated and feel like I've wasted my time so I give up" is not a good outcome, for any of the parties concerned.
If he can't defend his idea among project maintainers it's not worth implementing imho. While the first implementation could have been made in a rush, if this needs to be fixed let's give it some thought this time. While they were clearly not supportive, also clearly this guy is not the right one for this job.
