Susanne, boiling any protein will toughen it, not just eggs. You're right, they're wrong.
Chiffonade, unless they have just changed their policy, CI archives are accessible. You just have to reset the time frame (at the bottom, I think.) That for me was the beauty of the site. (my subscription has just expired). If it has changed, let me know and I probably wont re-subscribe.
I think in other fields it is customary to have novelists review novelists, historians review historians, etc. The important thing is to recognize the reviewers' biases. In the case of Kimball, his are pretty easily read. In the CI recipes I often disagree with the goal they wish to achieve in a particular recipe (soft chocolate chip cookies? Faugh!), but their meticulous documentation helps me find the way to my own. OK, no stones from the soft cookie crowd,k please.