Kids need adults to show them how to play? Holy crap, what are we coming to?
From the article, it sounds like we're coming to, indeed are in, a first-world industrial and information economy where we've learned that children's natural levels of executive function may not develop sufficiently, in the presence of the gadgetry available, to allow them to compete in the workplace and cope with the demands of a technological society. We're also, apparently, in a place where we think we have some idea how to intervene in what appears to be a caring and benign way to direct children's play in a direction that fosters this key cognitive function.
Far from being unexpected, this seems very natural to me. We wear clothes because we live in inclement places. We cook our food because our brains need more nutrition than raw food allows. And now we direct the play of our offspring to better equip them for their expected environment. This is no more indicative of some untenable circumstance than the fact that we don't live in huts and dig for grubs on the plains of Africa.
"How to begin to educate a child. First rule, leave him alone. Second rule, leave him alone. Third rule, leave him alone. That is the whole beginning."
(D.H.Lawrence)
It probably boils down to the problem that when trying to teach "children" as an amorphous mass, "formulaic" and "effective" are simply never going to go together. No matter how smart the formulator or how hard the formula-applier tries.