I never had a problem with the philosophy of what he was doing; it was the WAY he did it. Somehow, everything was trash until his genius improved it.
A legend in his own mind, and everyone who didn't agree was an idiot.
I have zero idea how good his tweaking ideas were, his people skills absolutely suck.
Jason's point above is interesting:
Those crossovers I tried measured better on the graphs but to MY ears they were not better, just different.
I find that it's possible as this dovetails with Ian's philosophy of A/B testing for the sound that people prefer. Maybe Ninja really COULD produce a crossover that measures better. But Ian's exhaustive A/B testing shows that his designs are preferred in controlled listening tests.... and that people have a tendency to choose accuracy in such tests.
Just getting philosophical before my coffee, In the end, I love my Axioms and wouldn't pay a quarter to let someone try to "improve" them!