This seems unnecessarily callous. The writer was incredibly insulting to a person in a public forum, but that's ok because "well they worked for Uber"?
I don't see this discussion as about whether a corporate PR team is allowed to issue a response. It's about the author childishly lashing out at an individual because he didn't agree with their decision.
Irrelevant. If he found these bugs, even if he’s been a dick about it then he still found a bunch of vulnerabilities that Uber was exposed to. Pay the man, it’s a few thousand dollars as opposed to a major exploit!
But that's my point. Of course he deserved a payout if he reported a previously unknown vulnerability. What I'm saying is that he (appears to have) behaved in such toxic way (sow) that someone denied something he deserved (reap). All parties in this are squishy humans with emotions.
No one looks good - he doesn't look good for how he behaved/communicationed, Uber doesn't look good for denying the payout on a valid report, and Hackerone doesn't look good for not enforcing a minimum payout on a valid report.