It is historically not sound to base judgment of an inventor from 1908 on the knowledge available now, that is a hundred years later. In the particular case of monsieur Collomb, his ideas should be judged on knowledge available in 1908.
Perhaps the contemporary judgment can be read in the French L'Aérophile volume 16 (1908) No. 5 (March 1) p. 87. It would be interesting to read the article, but unfortunately I have no copy or scan.
There is at least another contemporary (1910) text on Collomb
Source: Graffigny, Henry de. 1910. Le tour de France en aéroplane / par Henry de Graffigny,... ; ill. de Ferdinand Raffin.
The text describes the characteristics of the machine and leaves it at that.
Cheers
Kees