I know people who are as brilliant, productive and esoteric as Don, and who don't have a cave, and do have great social skills, and don't have control issues, and no, I wouldn't call them nerds.

In fact, I know Don Knuth peripherally, and I don't think he is a nerd.

<shrug>

The baggage you have for the word "nerd" is different from mine. The article is definitely describing mine. In essence you said it earlier: your semantics don't match mine. They obviously don't match the author's either. Or my wife's. Or my colleagues'.