It's a shot across the bow at the Kool-Aid which everyone here has imbibed to some extent. Of course they're going to shoot the messenger. When I clicked this thread I said out loud to my team, "oh, this should be good," and I hadn't even fathomed precisely how predictable the discussion would be. It's so far removed from any consideration that it lands something like explaining to an American that they're a subject of the Queen. It makes no sense to objectively review the thinking when you're inside, and buy, the thinking.
Bear in mind the livelihood of nearly everyone participating in this conversation is impacted by the situation being lamented. It's telling that CoreOS employees felt compelled to set the record straight and casually "float ideas".
It's further curious to note the difference in HN's reaction to an extremely salty and offensive post from, say, Linus Torvalds, versus this one. People are really bad at objectively setting aside their ideology and tone is a kind excuse to get out of having to genuinely think about whether the angry individual might have a point, and when it hits close to home, well. All bets are off.
You're 100% correct on your overarching point but the less kind interpretation is "the incentives of modern software engineering value complexity to artificially strengthen a software engineering job economy". The good news is that the more Big Tech screws the pooch with user data management and software engineering, the stronger an argument I have among very receptive ears in government circles to start thinking of Big Web/FAANG as hostile to responsible computing innovation, because they never really bought what Mikey sold them, and the troupe that followed Mikey to Washington didn't hang around to explain the downsides or long-term management needs of the current landscape.