But it only takes a few examples counter to what a public service should do to show that GDP reliance creates anti-patterns. e.g. rising healthcare costs is good for the GDP while universal healthcare is bad.
GDP is still useful. I don't think there are examples of countries that had drops in GDP without being in deep trouble. It exploits the fact that economies [almost] never change quickly, so when you're looking at just one country, the GDP is a reasonable indicator of the overall state.
Where the GDP sucks is when people try to compare the _rates_ of GDP growth between countries.
I think the modern indicator is how GDP growth last year would have been almost entirely flat had it not been for the massive amounts of AI spending. Something that as of now (regardless of thoughts of long term job aspects) is only constrainting the material market.
I don't fault the author for that usage because I know they are basically using the same language such policy makers use, and using it to disprove a really odd (but common) usage of GDP as this way to measure long term prosperity.