This article does sound like one of the anointed, big government types in Atlas Shrugged lecturing the benighted on why and how to conduct business. What consumers are willing to pay doesn’t seem to enter into the calculus. The real world seems to dictate that prices generally must be high enough to cover costs, and low enough that people will pay them.
I agree that it doesn’t really rationalize anything. Rationality is usually lacking in articles that address why certain things “suck”.
Well, that's a take I hadn't considered. But given the lack of any understanding of pricing [as you mentioned], I just considered it typical hack business journalism by someone who knows nothing of business and isn't much of a journalist.