Hence the author's main point: a good taste is one that fits with the needs of the project. If you can't align your own presuppositions with the actualities of the work you're doing then obviously your subjective measures going forward will not be very good.
There are some domains where the word “taste” can still properly be applied, for example “vi vs emacs” comes down to individual taste. But then, “emacs people have poor taste” is something that only a narcissist would say. (The “narcissism of small differences” is a well-studied phenomenon).
Or perhaps one uses this choice of words because one feels some sympathy for people who say this in other domains, like “This room, filled with IKEA furniture and film memorabilia, was decorated in poor taste”
… either way, the red flag seems to stick.
The reason it's worth mentioning is that the notion seems to be catching on, and I've seen it applied, for example, in hiring decisions, where I think it's quite dangerous and counterproductive. It lends itself to rationalizing hiring only like-minded people, even where there is no objective ground for preferring one candidate to another.
e.g. I might decide that some clothes, although well made and possibly even very fashionable, are not my taste. The superiority/inferiority of taste is something that insecure people focus on IMO. A tasteless thing would be something that doesn't seem to show any overall philosophy of design or something which is bombastic - it goes to town on some aspect at the expense of all others - there's a lack of balance. Even then, who cares?
If I wear a bright tomato-coloured suit because I like colour, why should that make me a bad person? It's only when other people have to accept your tastes because they work with you that they're going to moan about them.
Lacking an objective way to predict that, we turn to taste.
Something might not be to my taste but it can be good and workable nonetheless. It has taken some decisions that lead to solving a problem in a certain way and I can see that that way works and can be extended but it might not be a way that pleases me. Perhaps this is because it forces me to think in a mode that I am not generally accustomed to.
There are plenty of subjective preferences that we can make comparative claims about without any risk of narcissism.