I don't agree that it's idealistic because it's only directional - it tells you what to move towards, it doesn't give you any idealistic target or criteria for any of the things it lists. Which seems like a good thing.

Yeah like current sibling reply here, it's OK to be idealistic: "here's what I think perfect looks like", and accept that sure not everybody meets that definition. Doesn't mean it's a bad aspiration though.

I mostly agree with the article, FWIW. Including having worked with various "talented but difficult" people before.

One of the more under-appreciated aspects of management is having direct reports you can delegate stuff to and (a) they just deal with it, and (b) you need little or no supervision and there's no drama.

Managers are humans: making their lives a little better by being Mr/Mrs/Ms Reliably Gets Things Done will in any sane org yield dividends. Of course not all orgs are sane, and not all managers are Good Managers, but that's a different conversation.