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The reason for some out-of-line commentary from competitors is likely the price point. This alone is threatening to anyone in the industry. Then pair it with an acceptable low weight in a clearly well thought out design by an individual with a strong background, and you start to erode the establishment's hold on the market with the power of a strong spring run-off.
Regarding the X-Mid vs the HR, I've discussed this in a few other comments, but the rotated inner really changes everything about the tent. It allows the poles/peaks to be moved inwards from the edges so you don't have vertical side walls that catch wind and require more stakes and guylines. It also changes the entire floor plan so everything works so much better. Besides eliminating the vertical side walls, the diagonal inner creates generous vestibules vs. almost none in the HR. So the wider base + rotated inner + internal peaks are key innovations that solves the main downsides of the HR. It basically lets you have the benefits of a hexagon base (vestibules, no guylines) without the downsides (more stakes and pitching complexity).
Note that no tent in history (that I'm aware of) has used a diagonal inner inside a rectangular fly. So the basic layout of the X-Mid is unprecedented. The two similarities with the HR are the use of a rectangle base (which hundreds or thousands of tents throughout history have used) and the diagonal ridgeline, which is less common but still found on several tents (HR, TT, Yama). The use of the rotated inner is a key innovation that finally enables the diagonal ridgeline to work inside a rectangle without downsides. So compared to the HR, the X-Mid is simpler to pitch (fewer stakes, no mandatory guylines), more storm worthy, far lighter and offers a lot more area (vestibules). As I've mentioned elsewhere, the rectangle is a breath of fresh air for pitching, as rectangles are so much easier to stake out than hexagons (or worse).