The argument about “thermonuclear” neutrons became very arcane. The idea was the reactor could only work if plasma was truly “thermal”, that is near equilibrium, which the plasmoid in the DPF probably never is.
Supporters of the DPF argued that this was irrelevent. What counted was if the ions and the reaction products were in fact trapped in a dense region–the plasmoid. There is a lot of evidence that they are.
Bostick joked about that the neutrons had to be “orthodox”–thermal–or the tokamak guys would not count them. The key thing is how much energy you actually produce, not whether you are close to equilibrium or not.
By the way, you should know about this as a biologist. Organisms that are at equilibrium are dead.
