Right. After skimming the article I went to my Calendar to see what had changed. Nothing. That calendar was still there and turned off like it always has been. Not sure what everyone is talking about.
1. It's annoying because I already have all the birthdays I want on my iCloud calendar; it's creating a pile of duplicate events.
2. It's annoying in 3rd party apps when you hit a show/hide all calendars button, but you never want to see the Birthdays calendar.
3. Some 3rd party apps don't let you show/hide calendars in general, and this isn't a writable calendar, so it's doubly annoying. (Yes, this is shitty design too.)
But interesting that two of your bullet points in a comment about Google's shitty design are actually about the shitty design of some 3rd party apps, not Google. None of the 3rd party apps I use for Calendar have those issues.
I don't think it is a big deal. You do. Both are opinions. We disagree.