I've heard this line before - people say it as if something disastrous would happen if Apple gave in and made the green '+' a maximize button... so far nothing's coming to mind.
(btw, I haven't used windows for anything other than testing IE for about 9 years, and I still hate Apple's choice regarding the 'zoom' button).
If the application is a window into your data, why make that window bigger than necessary, thus obscuring your desktop, or some other window behind it? That may not be disastrous, but I think its intent makes sense.
Without further explanation, I end up suspecting that when he writes: "it almost never does what you’d want or expect it to," the emphasis is on his expectations as a Windows user, not on what he would prefer, all things being equal.
[and for the record, I'm speaking as an Ubuntu user, who has never owned a mac]
Personally though, I generally just use Spaces to have different screens containing only applications that I want to use together. So I'll have a programming doc open in Preview, next to my XCode project window. Or I'll have a web browser open with Textmate if I'm doing something with Rails. That way you only have the apps that you are interested in on screen in any given 'space'.
Next quibble?
http://abstractnonsense.com/desktop.png
If emacs wasn't taking up the whole screen, I'd have a scrollbar running down the middle of the screen, which would be really visually distracting.
I used virtual desktops a lot back when I used Linux for my desktop os. They're great, and I'm sure I'll use them again when I upgrade from Tiger. But, for me at least, they're no substitute for maximization.
Still cluttery, I guess... but I love it ;)