He did recommend waiting to get one with a custom designed cooler(not at the conclusion).
I don't see how anyone could deny the value and performance of the 290x. Even with the crappy reference cooler the card is whooping on the Titan which is almost double the price.
I think these reference cards are going to shine when water cooled with some good voltage control. 290X has a lot of life in it. The raw hardware in the 290X is very capable. I expect the 290X to be extremely popular amongst hard core over clockers and gamers.
Keeping the temps down is the most important thing from both nvidia and amd. One has delivered, other not so much. I am not denying that the price/performance isn't any good but 95c is not acceptable no matter how you look at it.