No books were burned, although a few were traded in on Amazon.

I don't think so. This is a particular style - common to aspiring "avant-garde" writers - that emphasizes the aesthetics of language at the expense of focus and clarity. As a result the reader encounters oblique references, convoluted metaphors, and implicitness bordering on loose-association, to the point that the article appears to be barely-comprehensible drivel.

After reading it through three times, I think that the author is trying to make the point that the preponderance of websites overflowing with superfluous crap and poor usability hasn't been caused by designers' incompetence, but originates with clients who simultaneously demand many conflicting features. Of course, this has been true for fifteen years or so; it isn't exactly a revelation.