Any reason to say you should do starting strength "with caution" other than it's mentioned on 4chan (and a million other places)?
It's popular because it works. Though it's not like you really have to drink a gallon of milk a day, the idea is that you eat way more than you would as a skinny person.
It’s a fine beginner program, and as the original article inadvertently shows, one common failure mode is not getting enough calories. GOMAD is tough to mess up.
It’s fine, if you don’t take it as dogma, understand that Rippetoe isn’t a particularly great coach or lifter, and it should only be run 6 to 12 weeks - maximum. I think most folks would be better off doing 5/3/1 with cardio and/or a sport or doing any number of programs from John McCallum’s classic, “The Complete Keys to Progress”.