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All magazine-style writing is like this to some degree, but this one is just too extreme. It is basically junk writing.

Look, for example, at what Vinod Khosla says about the Starbucks deal, all of which is totally reasonable, but he is turned into some kind of guilty-person-in-detective-fiction with phrases like "he says defensively", which strengthen the desired narrative but have no relation to verifiable facts.

To me, it looks like Square used credit card readers as an entry to point-of-sale which was then an intro into vertical specific applications (Square Appointments, restaurant and delivery are 3 examples that immediately come to mind). These evolutionary steps all take time and investment.

As another commenter pointed out, looks like a hit piece.

That being said, I always thought Square should have offered an online API long ago.

I can't find the link but I distinctly recall Keith Rabois claiming that Square would make money on the deal. I thought this was highly dubious at the time -- it just didn't make sense when you considered how big Starbucks was already, meaning could already demand the best rates possible.

Not that that means it was a bad deal.. it was clearly a marketing move. "Starbucks uses Square". But that kind of marketing quickly loses its value once the public knows it was a result of loss-leader promotions, not intrinsic product value.