Couldn't agree more. This also applies to other financial technologies as well. In general, I feel there is just too much opaqueness in the finance.
On a slightly related note, I am working on the trading part mentioned in the article - i.e. APIs for advanced methods of getting the trades done. Basically, these trading methods are use machine learning to predict near future movement and use that to optimize the orders. (Some more details here - https://www.qleap.co/ - in case, someone is interested.)