The connotative meaning of “poor” isn’t really anything that isn’t the absolute best. Words have meaning beyond the dictionary definition. “Poor” in this case means you think the researchers did a bad job, not that their work was a step on the path to something better. “Earlier”, or even “dated”, would have been a much more charitable depiction. And plenty of people are deriving joy from the application of that technology.
I’m really not. And I don’t get offended by very much. Maybe you’re not a native speaker? “Poor” as it refers to quality is a negative qualifier. And it’s typically used in a subjective context. That’s the connotative meaning.
Even the definition used here (taken from Google) indicates so, if it weren’t truncated:
poor (adjective) worse than is usual, expected, or desirable; of a low or inferior standard or quality.
The list of synonyms is even more telling about it’s real meaning: shoddy, bad, deficient, defective, lamentable, deplorable, awful, etc.
These are not words I’d use to describe the technology, having seen it first-hand. The technology is not worse than usual and I really don’t see how it’s worse than expected or is otherwise undesirable. It’s out there and being enjoyed by people.
