When I read articles like this, it's hard for me to get what the actual problem is. Apparently "the very introduction of the iPhone Air proves that Jobs’s words are falling on deaf ears on the hardware front ..". So I guess it's bad in some way? There's been months of criticism about Liquid Glass too it seems. I don't really follow any Apple-focused media, so I've never heard them at all (battery life concerns make sense, sure).
Even the Brownlee quote seems to answer its own doubt about iPhone Air: "it is surrounded by other iPhones that are better than it in basically every way, other than being super thin and light". What is wrong with making a new class of phone that prioritizes thinness and lightness?
To me, Apple is just as despicable as they've always been. Their "developer program" is as draconian as always. And lately is seems they're possibly more hypocritical than usual (e.g. super tight notification restrictions on app devs, then using notifications for their own marketing). Every time someone joins a Google Meet and can't talk, I know they're a Mac user because it seems they have to restart the entire browser (Chrome) to allow mic access.
Anyway, per the above paragraph, I have plenty of complaints about Apple myself. But it seems my complaints and the author's complaints are completely non-overlapping, which I found a bit surprising. It seems there's some emotional thing going on with long-time Mac users. In general I kinda get it. Most great things seem to teeter off after awhile of greatness.