I think you are misrepresenting him.

He says his paradigm is “start with the algorithm” (to make it generic) and that does not work in the OO model, and as an example he gives a simple max(a, b) function which he wouldn’t know how to write in Java.

The “OOP principles” adopted by others, which you think voids his argument, you can argue are also used by Stepanov himself. He just calls it data abstraction (iirc).