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The durable umbrella weighs in at 1.7 kg / 3.7 lb, four times what a normal umbrella would weigh. That is absurdly impractical.

From TFA: [...] the assumption of 'less but better' being a superior approach to product design is rarely practically evaluated.

The third umbrella in the series takes durability to an almost cartoon-like level [...]

This was a study of materials and design, not a product someone would like to sell . It's research on object longevity.

Yes, but with all studies, it can be made in an objective way or in a way that already enforces a particular conclusion.

This is why, in serious scientific work, so much focus is placed on methods and reproducibility.

Here he used the less rigorous field of arts and design to wiggle out of that responsibility and present a blatantly biased study.

We can think of it as the arts equivalent of the spherical cows in vacuum.