I think the new atheist thing is probably good for kids coming out of very religious environments and rejecting them. It's easy to make fun of /r/atheism whining about that one time their parents made them go to church, but it really can be alienating to reject religion when it's very important to your family. Having people that loud an unapologetic who agree with you couldn't hurt.
I still haven't forgiven Dawkins for memes though.
I spent a year living with a roommate who was the church golden boy in middle school in order to save his soul because his parents told him he was goof to hell for masturbation, impure thoughts, and living anything but the pure Christian life. In simple terms it fucked him up. It lays a groundwork of basically never being able to receive legitimate acceptance from your family which is tough enough on it's own made worse when they believe you're going to recieve enteral damnation for it. I get what creates the "loud atheist". I still find it annoying, I do agree with you though. I think it could be considered comparable to the struggle of coming out as something other than cos gendered heterosexual. (In the familial sense, not too any people give a fuck apt your religion outside of that) Also yeah I've totally skipped over many chances to hear Dawkins speak on anything (documentaries and books) due to the internet persona that was created for him.