I think what this person forgets is that some people don't want to live in a city. They like driving their cars everywhere. Apple doesn't want to build a suburb in their campus. They want it to be a great place for employees to do great work.
I meet lots of go-get-em younger engineers who cross Microsoft off their list of potential employers on the basis of being in Redmond. Microsoft has to bus the hipsters from Capitol Hill.
For better or for worse, a more suburban kind of campus will likely scare off younguns in favor of older, more family-oriented, more car-dependent employees.
You really need colocation to make things work. I expect two things out of this building:
First, it will improve a bunch of Apple's internal processes.
Second, they will run out of room sooner than they think, and I'd put money on them not even releasing leases on many outlier buildings.
This will take a long time to build and move into, but once they do, I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually manage to buy out that "missing piece" and incorporate it into the plan. One step at a time...
Google also buses people in from San Francisco... which you have to admit beats the hell out of having them all drive in... or even take up seats on public transit for that matter.
And good point--I guess most of the super big tech players in the valley are located in the bland suburbs.