The post is attempt to put into words an explanation of what it is that we do that other engineers can understand. It's an attempt to explain by analogy.
Nothing in there is being used as a buzzword. We build actual ontologies. Our system is an actual abstraction on top the data. It's operation follows the same pattern as an operating system.
Not only that, I wouldn't call 'abstraction' or 'operating system' a buzzword. (I'll grant you that 'ontology' is bit overused at times, but we don't use it for buzzword compliance, we use it because it actually describes the data models that we build for each instance. But you know, even 'synergy' means something and can be used in a way that's correct?)
The picture of the internet is in the section referencing how the computer operating system has brought us into the information age -- hardly a a non-sequitur. The rise of computing power and the labor savings that good abstractions like the operating system gives us have actually shaped our modern world.
I'm sorry you think the piece is fluffy. I'm a software engineer who helped build the system. I interact with operating systems every day. I ran the piece by a whole slew of engineers in the company to make sure that I wasn't off my rocker in what I was describing, from the analogy about operating systems to why our system has incredible potential for the future. It's not gratuitous wanking, I promise you.
(Maybe the title just needs to be softened? Make the analogy more clear rather than making it seem like we're declaring our system to be a 'operating system' in the classic sense of the phrase?)