So much of this article is things that are entirely the author's fault. I say this as someone who has rented in everything from new buildings where I was the first tenant, to decades old buildings, to section 8 housing, to owning homes. You need to do maintenance on any place you live. I've noticed a lot of people that are my age and younger think that maintenance is the responsibility of the landlord, because they associate maintenance to building maintenance, and assume there are not responsible to do anything. I can't tell you the number of people whom I've visited in my life in their rental units to realize that they've never scrubbed their toilets, cleaned under the kickplate in their kitchen, or made any attempt at basic care or repair towards the property at all. I've visited several people, especially other nerdy guys, who don't even own a vacuum cleaner. There seems to be an assumption that everything is entirely the landlord's responsibility and if it goes awry they'll simply move and let the landlord deal with it.
I don't know how entire generations have managed to get to adulthood and through some aspects of life without learning basic life skills, but an apartment is not the same thing as a long-stay hotel. There's no maid service, your mommy is not there to make you chicken nuggets and clean up after you. You need to take care of your own shit, and I mean that both figuratively and literally. Clean up after yourself, manage moisture, take care not to damage things (in general, but especially where you live), and if you do damage something you should fix/repair it yourself as immediately as possible. Don't fuck a place up and then leave it for someone else to resolve, and definitely don't fuck it up and then act like its someone else's responsibility.
Unfortunately, because this seems to be a growing problem of complete lack of care, accountability, and basic life skills in society, you are more likely to also be negatively impacted by others. The reason the gym equipment eventually breaks is because nobody takes any care in using it or misuses it, and you end up in a tragedy of the commons situation. Even if you do everything right, you will eventually be negatively impacted by those who go through life fucking things up and blaming everyone else. It's one of the reasons why it's awesome to own your own home, everything is your problem, but you also have complete control over your own living environment.