The point is that Facebook originally gained it's popularity because it was a "cool hangout". Like the author, I was in college when Facebook first came out. Being restricted to college kids, it wasn't about "being really useful to a ton of people". They developed their product in exactly the way you say they shouldn't.

Of course, that was a long time ago, so this article is obviously far too late. That all changed the day they allowed non-college-students in.