I find much to agree with in the traditional Catholic/Latin Mass fandom’s diagnosis of the problems with the modern Catholic church. Sure, it’s a bit ironic that the ultra-Catholic response maps so neatly to the Reformation - a notably lay-driven movement pushing back against the innovating central authority, making good use of youth energy and new media. My main concern, though, is the triumphalism, and the unmistakable stench of "who are we praying against" in the tradcat sphere.
There's a subtle "looking at the moon" vs "looking at the finger pointing to the moon" distinction in play. "Actually being traditional" looks very different from "being about being traditional," in the same way that neopagan LARPers are very different from actual historical pagans.
What would a 17th century French peasant village do if transported to the modern day? Prayer, lots of shared secular rituals and social life, serious mutual aid, enforcing mainly ingroup norms. Refighting the 30 Years War or getting into “my liturgy can beat up your litugry” arguments with randos on the internet wouldn't even occur to them as things to do. Well, what are the internet tradcats doing?
Now, to be fair, Having Opinions about liturgy is probably a necessary first step. You’ve gotta gather the faithful first before they can do anything interesting, and using liturgy as your Schelling point is about as good as any other ingroup marker. But triumphalism merely because you got a fan club together is premature. Triumph is when the people in your group have lived their distinctive lives so long they no longer notice that it's extraordinary.
(Ideally after fighting a guerrilla war with USG in the Western desert and doing well for yourselves, but still.)
To be clear, I'm glad the tradcat thing exists and I met some good people through the Ordinariate. I wish them luck. But the brute fact is that the tradcat sphere is quite larval in development, certainly compared to historic or overseas Catholic communities, and they’ve even got quite a lot to learn from solid American Evangelical churches re: community building. Triumphalism now is paradoxically a sign of low expectations for what the tradcat movement can become. I see much more being possible and encourage tradcats to raise their sights.
A less strongly held belief, but presented for your consideration: Tradcats claiming rhetorical ownership of the actually existing Catholic church (as distinct from just thinking of them as “people we’re in communion with”) are dumb, in the same way as naive conservatives cheerleading for USG because it's "our team." Rectification of names: you own at best your local communities. The remainder of the church may one day be reclaimed, but now considers you slightly embarrassing relatives. You do not own it (yet, growth mindset.)