Why not esoteric?
Ks1859 wrote:
Often considered by his peers to be a purveyor of__________, Simmons had to look to his students for admiration, who, in contrast to his more seasoned colleagues, often praised the sincerity and profundity with which he wrote.
The clues here are:
Peers-->?
Students--> Sincerity & profundity
So I know this is sentence does the word contrast and thus, simmons students and peers thought in a different direction i.e. his peers thought his writing to be not sincere or found is superficial.
Only B fits. Other options are either out of scope or not appropriate to the sentence.
Hope this helps!