Boy, poor ol' Cap'n Joe is coming in for quite a drubbing here, isn't he?
Much of this criticism falls into a familiar category -- people reproaching an author for not writing the book they would have written, if they could write books.
Would Conrad even have said that "colonialism" was what he was writing about? Much less that he meant to tell us what the "real problem" of colonialism is?
It doesn't seem likely. From my distant memories of the book, I would have said he was writing about what can happen to human character under certain circumstances.
^^^^^ CB: "Certain circumstances" like "colonialism" ? (smile)