You should have listened to that instinct. Now the kid gloves are coming all the way off.
No, it isn't. It's called "credentialism," ie. a statement that authority on a subject exists because of my credentials in that field. An appeal to authority is to an external source. An example would be a statement that a thing is true because Stephen King in his book On Writing states X, Y, and Z. If you're going to accuse me of something, at least use the right terminology.
If there's one thing I can't stand it's this type of crap. Yes, you did, and by saying "that isn't so simplistic," you just implied that here again. You came into a guide about how to properly put a story hook into opening sentences, and said that it was better to put the story hook somewhere else. Take responsibility for yourself.
Now, if you think I've got a problem with you, you are absolutely right. I do - but it's not because you waltzed into my guide on opening sentences and started offering alternatives. It's because I find you to be a sloppy writer who doesn't know what he's doing, and therefore has no business telling anybody else how to write. Shall we do a deep dive into the sins of your example opening paragraph?
Redundant description. "It was a dark and stormy night" is an old, established, and highly evocative sentence. It immediately creates a very specific and detailed image in the reader's mind of wind, lightning, and thunder. Once this image is created, no further environmental description is necessary. The problem is that it is so well established a sentence that it is a cliche, which causes unintended consequences in any paragraph it is used in. But, that's a discussion for another day.
Telling rather than showing. "One that hasn't been seen in ages by the local populace" is a sentence that tells the reader that the storm is geographically exceptional, but the problem is that it just flat-out tells the reader that the storm is geographically exceptional. A better sentence would be "The locals would later call it the 'storm of the century'." Now the reader is drawing the conclusion that the storm is geographically exceptional for him/herself.
Changing person in the middle of the paragraph. This paragraph is written in the third person. "It was the type of storm that came down in sheets, reducing visibility to no more than a few meters in front of you" now shifts it to a first person personal narration. It should have read "It was the type of storm that came down in sheets, reducing visibility to no more than a few meters ahead."
Incorrect imagery. This is the opening paragraph to a ghost story, as indicated by the final sentence. The imagery you have selected is that of rain, which is the traditional imagery of change, rebirth, or cleansing. The emotional impact it creates is of relief, when instead it should be of foreboding - which would have been the case if you'd left this sentence out in the first place.
"But this night was different." There is so much wrong with this sentence that it deserves its own list. It's redundant - you've already established the exceptionalism of the storm, and thus of the night it is taking place during. It raises unnecessary confusion in the reader's mind - so the storm is geographically exceptional, but it's even more so? Or is it talking about something different and unrelated, and if so, why is it being mentioned here with the storm? The only thing this sentence accomplishes is making the paragraph look bad - it should not be able to survive the most cursory of edits.
Poor grammar. Normally, in a post like this, I'd give this a pass, but the point I'm making here is in regards to sloppiness, so I won't. "This night, ghost were out" is wrong - it should be "This night, the ghosts were out."
This is what your sample paragraph could have looked like:
"It was a dark and stormy night, one that the locals would later call the 'storm of the century'. And this night, the ghosts were out."
Or, if you really felt like adding that extra environmental information, it could have looked like:
"It was a dark and stormy night. Deafening thunder crashed without end as lightning cast the streets into sharp, jagged relief. The locals would later call it the 'storm of the century'. And this night, as the wind howled, the ghosts were out."
If you can't construct a decent opening paragraph you have no business telling others how to do it.
Now, you're right - I've been teaching long enough that this is my default mode when I write a guide or the like. But it also means that as a teacher, I have a responsibility to not lead people astray. I take that responsibility very seriously (I literally tell my students every year that if it turns out something I told them in class ended up being wrong, to come back and tell me about it). And that means that when somebody comes into a guide I wrote offering bad advice, I feel a responsibility to answer it.
And if you don't like that, too bad. I'm not the one who came into this thread with pretenses of expertise backed by lousy writing - you did. All I'm doing is calling you out on it.