It's a phrase, and everyone understands what it means. Wikipedia isn't the worst here, even though it mangles the grammar:
In summary that has authenticity emanates from an authority. The only problem here is people pretending not to know that language involves ambiguities, figures of speech, and so on.
To expand: in this case, two things are happening simultaneously: first, the author appreciates literature, and is genuinely happy that their intuitive belief that it is something "good" is getting a bit of empirical evidence.
Second, yes, I believe there is a hint of a smirk in the statement, that, if I were to dramatize it, is a comeback at all the STEM students in college that were dismissive of the author's enjoyment of non-non-fiction. It's all in good fun, however, because the article fundamentally rests on a believe in the scientific method, just not to the exclusion of other human endeavors.