Apologies in advance for those who are weary of finishing threads.

Like others here, I've been reading Flexner's book on finishes. And like others, I have found a good bit of demystification in it.

However, it has raised a few questions:
1. The flexner initiate seem to come to the conclusion that linseed oil is outdated, mythical nonsense. I see in the early pages that he debunks the idea that linseed is the holy grail of all finishes, but I also read this in his chapter on oil finishes (p.77):
"For small objects such as gunstocks, how ever, polymerized oil works superbly."
So what am I missing? Why do people routinely say "read Flexner, then you'll understand why linseed oil is an old wives tale", or something like that.
2. On that same note, understanding that the addition of things like copal or other resins creates an oil based varnish (i.e. not just an oil finish), what am I missing in Flexner's book that makes people reference him in their arguments against traditional slakum oil?
3. For those who have come to the conclusion that linseed is not that great, particularly in protecting a gun, how does that square with the many examples of 100+ year old guns with intact wood finished with linseed oils? In fact, why aren't their more examples of guns that are ruined because they only got an oil finish, instead of a modern poly based finish?
4. Finally, it seems to me that the finest gun makers in the world, both today and for the past century or so, have used linseed oil based slakum to finish their 'best guns'? Are the folks at purdey, etc, just behind the times? Have they simply missed the Flexner revolution?

Jim