Minimalism isn't the problem here. Minimalism can be used a number of different ways, and the author discusses only one of those ways - luddite asceticism. I rarely encounter that attitude, though.

Instead, many of the better minimalists I've read cut back on most things so that they can dig in extremely deeply with a few things. They want to be extremely good at a few (2-5) things, and to do so, they sacrifice being moderately good at a large number of things.

The author talks about great achievers soaking themselves in things, building lots of connections, and building great ideas. This 'minimize to maximize' approach does the same thing. It just tries to build connections where they are most likely to be helpful. It understands that with our limited capacity, we should be devoting as much as possible to the most important things in our lives.