Yes, his bitchy attitude was unnecessary, and the weird reaction on the next hole was even more unnecessary.
I agree that a hole that short should be waited out before teeing off. I, like others on this site, will go ahead and assume that they have no idea what they are doing, and will continue to throw on us. Just because YOU may know their length, the rest of the course doesn't, and I would say EVERYBODY I have golfed with gets ticked off when somebody else tees off before they finish.
Whatever it is, the branches, other noises, whatever, it's not right to be playing the hole while somebody else is on it. - It - rushes - the - game. Period. I played a 1288' hole yesterday, the group in front of us waited for the group ahead of them to start putting, and we waited for them to start putting. The group behind us did not start throwing until we were all in the circle. None of us can throw 800 feet, but nobody played on other golfers at 800 feet either. The point is:
1. We all waited about 5 minutes
2. Nobody was complaining
3. We got to relax while we played the hole
4. There were no more backups later on the course!
Etiquette only works if everybody participates.