My strongest point is actually about the audience

I think this is the strongest part of my reasoning:

A rebuttal to a public post is not necessarily addressed to the person who made the post; it may be addressed to everyone who reads the post.

Imagine A has 100,000 followers and writes a misleading historical claim.

B replies:

“This is incorrect. Here is the evidence.”

A says:

“Don't bother responding to me.”

That does not answer B's reason for responding.

B may reasonably reply:

“I'm not responding only for you. I'm responding for the people who may read your claim.”