I agree with your statement. I think the clamoring for entitlements and awareness is driven by veterans advocacy groups, not the veteran community as a whole. In my opinion, it's a reaction to the neglect and apathy that veterans of previous wars experienced, most recently the Vietnam War. (If you want to be depressed, read about the maltreatment of WW1 vets in the US.) The veterans groups fight for entitlements because they believe they are subject to revocation as soon as awareness drops.
Through the lens of being a veteran, I find most of it to be overblown, though in the case of the author I think it's perhaps somewhat justified. However, he should admit that his issues aren't systemic; they're personal. His issues are 99% due to psychological issues from his combat service, not a tech-industry imposed Jim Crow Era (the Driving Miss Daisy comment in the article).
I don't think I'd ever comment on a CIB on display, it seems about as appropriate as the proverbial ignorant question, "Did you kill anybody?"
A good half of my friends who returned from combat had significant difficulty fitting into normal American life, and experienced psychological and relationship issues. I wish veterans groups would focus their rhetoric on that specific problem. Pay for servicemembers has increased far beyond parity with civilian jobs for the vast majority of occupational specialties, the Post-9/11 GI Bill truly solves the post-service employment training issue, and the stigma of being a veteran is essentially nonexistent. The hard problem that needs to be focused on is the significant therapy and rehabilitation need for the minority of veterans who actually were in combat.
What gets me is that he's whining about his raw deal as a veteran (pysch issues aside, is nonexistent), but he fails to accept responsibility for his life choices of 1) graduating (for free) with what I presume is a creative writing degree and failing to take internships, 2) failing to live in an affordable city (what's wrong with living in Oakland or Union City and driving over the Bay Bridge?), and 3) lamenting his lack of money as he wastes it at the bar (presumably in SoMa, and expensive).
The reason for the above is not because he's intentionally avoiding reality, it's because veterans often self-segregate in veterans groups. He lives in the TL because that's where his veterans organization operates (originally for Vietnam War vets with a more dire situation than his). Hopefully now that his Vice article has gotten him some more exposure, he'll have more interaction with non-vets and gain some perspective.