Yes it is a straw man. In Atari's case the people working there enjoyed the culture and didn't have an issue with it. You can't say the same thing about slaves.
Really bad comparison on my part in GP but I think my point stands. Just because something was "common" back in the day doesn't mean it's acceptable today and we shouldn't be rewarding people for things that today we see as harmful even though they weren't considered to be in the past.
Rewarding shitty past behavior is how we remain stuck with shitty behavior.
And again, you really need to evaluate whether it's a "vocal minority" or is actually a majority with a vocal subset.
The woman who took issue with the framing thought the Kotaku article was too hard on Atari's culture, so that only supports my argument.
The people involved don't think the behavior was shitty. It's only now, 40+ years after the fact, that people on twitter are complaining about it.