I believe what the author is bemoaning is not the business or customer realities, but the "art of engineering" being traded in for the bottom line. In many ways, this is simply the way all disenchantment works, the hard truth is that art doesn't really matter for its own sake. It needs to sell, and what makes it sell is not what makes one love the process of building. The elegance, the simple beauty, none of those "matter" to the market. Unfortunately, writing up articles stating how much you can't do what you love probably won't garner much sympathy (clearly), but I suppose that's why we have passion projects instead.