Did you read the article? It's just a review of a book - the article itself doesn't have much to say either way about modern clubs, besides acknowledging the recent Pincher news.
Briefly skimmed through it yes.
But surely the average HN reader will know from the tech world that choice of item to review and style of review is down to editorial discretion.
One might say that The Guardian is doing the very English thing of finding a way to say something without saying it.