This is super common, I know multiple people who do this.
Even crazier, a few people I know who do this worry their account will be flagged for only giving 5 star reviews. So, to prevent suspicion, when they ACTUALLY buy something they give it 1 or 2 stars just to balance things out. Thus, any merchants who don't buy reviews get additionally penalized.
Agreed, at least in my field it's almost exactly like he describes in the Netherlands - you get funding via professor's grants, and that means you work on a project related to their work. Additionally, my university pays social security, healthcare, dental, etc.
I think that for humanities things tend to work differently (I'm in a STEM) in the States though.
I agree, my first thought reading this article was, "this is a perfect example of why communication skills are just as important as technical ability".
Also, what was that surface mesh from the beginning of the article? There was no caption, no title, and no axis labels.