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This article's advice makes more sense to me if I take it as tips for diplomacy as a representative in a high-stakes industry standards forum, where you can't necessarily call it out when someone is trying to pull a fast one.

However, when reporting back to your company, you can and must privately call out Machiavellian plots, sabotage, sloppiness, bad technical directions, business conflicts, arrogance, etc., to the people who need to know that's going on.

If you're not representing a company, but rather, the public interest, then I guess what role you take might depend partly on the overall ethical temperature of the forum, and what influence you can have. Can you do more good by trying to join the cabal circles, with all the necessary diplomacy? Or can you do more good by speaking candidly in public?