I think the implication is you can use it to reflect additional light onto your photocell, improving the power output for a smaller cost than purchasing an additional cell.
"Noam Chomsky was the most conspicuous American intellectual to rationalize the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. The death toll, he argued, was minor compared to the list of Third World victims of the “far more extreme terrorism” of United States foreign policy."
Chomsky's comment here is neither false nor rationalising the attacks. I am not a particular fan of Chomsky (but I am on "the left") but this article is an especially weak attack on him.
"Programming can and should be much, much more user friendly than it is now."
While there's no doubt there are some libraries/tools/systems which are poorly designed, perceived complexity may often be due to the requirement to support a wide variety of new and legacy systems or to support layers of the tech stack that many people are not even aware of.
"We've just chosen to keep things like this because we think it makes us clever."
If I could make my job any simpler I would jump at the opportunity. Personally I often marvel at how relatively quick and easy it is to quickly develop useful programs.
Perhaps if you try implementing some of these more simple tools the reasons for the underlying complexity will reveal themselves.