i don't know why everyone started hating on semver 10 years ago. It makes a lot of sense to me to have `v<major>.<minor>.<patch>`
I am not sure about this but maybe one possible reason is that when you have more than one major version that is largely used, you must maintain two versions. For example, fix bugs for both major versions.
Does the author understand that ZeroVer is satire?
I don't know whether he knows it, but I think ZeroVer being a satire does not affect the essay's point much. There are lots of projects that start with major version zero (0.y.z) for initial development but then for some reason stick with it for long periods. There are also lots of projects that go with calendar versioning.