Braintree is not a great example of a company that "didn't take VC." According to Crunchbase they raised a $34 million series A round and a $35 million series B round. BigCommerce also raised a $15 million series A round and a $20 million series B round.
I realize this is a subtle point but I think the more accurate verb in this case is mandate rather than provide. I.e. countries don't provide maternity/paternity leave; they require employers to provide it.
Do they have a competitor whose angle is customer-powered support? I don't know anything about this business, but this sounds like a response to a competitor.
The guy sounds unnecessarily harsh. He could just have said "Congrats on the article. How's the company doing?" I don't think I'd want him as an investor.
If the government was buying high-polluters, though, there would be 10x more of them. People would keep them running and sell them to the government rather than junking them.