Explanation

Brand believes that the distinction obscures a more relevant question, so the word in the blank must mean something consistent with not relevant. Baleful means dangerous, and feckless means incompetent or irresponsible, neither of which are close to not relevant. Critical and cardinal both mean important, so those words are the opposite of what you’re looking for.

The correct answers here rely on secondary definitions of the words nice and minute. Both of these words can be used to mean so small as to be insignificant.

Hence options C and E fit!

Going by the POE:
We can see that the author mention more relevant question so the distinction is not relevant
A,B are eliminated
D,F do not mean irrelevant and are not pair
So C,E is the answer.

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