I have tremendous respect for a16z, a firm that helped pioneer the practice of working with and nurturing founders rather than forcing them out pre-IPO or minmaxing term sheets. 

     but to do so under the guise of being helpful and impartial is just plain silly.

These 'emerging stack' articles do promote their own companies, but are nevertheless useful for newcomers into a field, to quickly grasp the process and the players. If you don't like it, compile your own version.

I've used some companies recommended in their data architecture and it worked very well.