His LinkedIn indicates that he was a developer in the unit that created the Student Virus... Spy has a broad definition but it probably fits for a SigInt developer in the Israeli military..
And many people have a similar mindset, so it's understandable to report this information, and make consumer choices based on it.
That said, Israel should probably consider solutions like other countries with mandatory military service have, e.g. in Germany (until it stopped being mandatory) it was possible to avoid military service by spending the exact same time instead working in social services, e.g. hospitals, daycares, retirement homes, etc.
The same applies here, it doesn't matter if you call the people spy or not, VPNs should not have any association with intelligence services.
Of course using SELinux or TOR, or Intel products is something that’s hard to avoid, but one shouldn’t trust blindly.
I guess it depends on your definition of "much better", but for roughly the same definition you'd need to use to make that statement, you could also make it about Google and Facebook. And note that we're not talking about Israeli intelligence; we're talking about people who, when they were in their late teens and early twenties served, like a big portion of tech workers in Israel, did their mandatory service in a military intelligence unit. I know it's hard for people not familiar with it to understand, but most of these people don't have contacts in intelligence, as the personnel circulation in those units is very high -- almost everyone is just serving a few years for their mandatory service.
Would you trust Google or Facebook to run a VPN? No, I don't trust them at all. I only use them in the most limited amount necessary, and only entrust them with data which is already public.
I self-host everything else, because I don't trust them at all.