You only mentioned the parts of his statement about TAOCP that, when taken out of context, seem to prove your point.
He did note that it looks impressive on a shelf, but he also followed it up with "and it is impressive." Furthermore, he goes on to state that it is so comprehensive that if you have a computer science problem that falls in a category covered by one of the published volumes of TAOCP, and you cannot find a solution in TAOCP, that a solution likely does not exist. That's pretty high praise IMO.
>It's very dense and academic.
Is it not a dense text written in an academic style by an academic known for dense, academic writing? Its likely the greatest reference in existence, but it isn't an easy book to read at all. If it doesn't seem like a challenging read to you, then as the author already stated, you aren't one of the people that he was talking about.
>He insinuates pretty strongly that the first set of books is the canonical set with this statement: "If you're interested enough in programming that you're reading this blog, you've probably read most, if not all of the books in this list, so I won't spend time reviewing each one individually."
IMO, his statement doesn't attempt to canonize them at all. If you look at both lists, one list is obviously far more accessible to the average programmer than the other list. It doesn't make them better, just suitable for different people.
>For the right student, working on the right set of problems, I would not hesitate to recommend TAOCP.
I'm not saying that you're wrong. However, the article is about books that are often recommended to beginners. Most people will struggle if they start with TAOCP.