With 50-50 hindsight, this would have been best in this case IMHO.
LHoD: “How does this make any sense?..”
But multiquoting carries its own problems. Let me try another formulation. Brackets added:
That doesn’t give the appearance of editorializing, but it accurately conveys what was said. The downside is wordiness.
I dislike the following bowdlerization, because it’s vaguer. Strunk and White might agree with me. Brackets added:
To be clear, I don’t think LHoD or anyone should be held to the best practice standard, nor are they.