Hi Elise,
I can't see too much difference between your latest questions and your original ones, though I do see you acknowledging some responses as not being the ones you were after. Perhaps if the below doesn't answer your question then you could be clearer on what exactly it is you are asking. So anyway, here's my attempt to answer to your questions.
Firstly, if someone replies to all critiques with, "Well, you just didn't understand my poem," then what they have is a poem no one understands, and they are ignoring some very valuable feedback, which is really their problem, not mine. And as many have said, I can choose not to critique such a person further.
As to why one might behave in the way you describe, I can imagine a variety of reasons. If you really want to know, you'd need to ask these people, whoever they may be. Or find analogous tendencies in yourself and extrapolate from there (I could certainly do that, but that would be another post).
When you say: "I thought we were supposed to at least acknowledge crits as possibilities and not dismiss the critic" I get a bit confused. You've recognised that there's no official rules/guidelines on this. So what do you mean by "supposed to"? What sort of an answer would satisfy you here?
I can say this however: It's both polite and also a useful communication skill to acknowledge another's viewpoint and to show that you've understood it. Not to do so doesn't necessarily mean that one isn't taking others' views into account -- which is worth remembering -- but is still very likely to come across in that way.
So, do we have to? No. Is it useful and polite? Yes. What do we do if someone isn't doing it? Whatever we want to, I guess.
Hope this helps.
All the best,
Matt
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