In spirit I agree with you. People should write about whatever they want. But I'd prefer to meet such reporting as Carreyrou's with mockery for the following reason:

Somehow, his rather weak claims that Back is Satoshi were translated into my mother in law believing that I'm involved in criminal activity.

You might think that this says more about my mother in law than anything else, but I'd disagree. Here is how she laid out the case to me:

She heard a story on NPR that reported that it was 99% certain, scientifically, nay mathematically demonstrated that Adam Back was indeed Satoshi Nakamoto. And, the NPR reporters continued, this had grave implications because this same Adam Back had recently been involved in the production of a public company, the shareholders of which, had not been informed that Mr Back was Satoshi Nakamoto, which was indeed information materially relevant to the business and operations of this public company.

My mother in law will forget Adam Back's name in a month or two. At that point all that will be left is a little stronger sensation that Bitcoin is a criminal enterprise.

Assholes like Carreyrou do about as much good as those assholes who make up fake stuff about the history of memes. They should all be mocked.