Harsh? Nah, he went WAY too easy on current pop music.
I have always taken the tack of “is it good, for what style of music it is”
Menaing: does it have a good melody, nice changes, a catchy hook?
You’re right, that today the female vocalists have to try to hit these notes and warble around and preen at how wonderful they are, and the men tend to want to prove that they can hold a note for eight bars or more. In both cases they tend to “emote” too much for my taste. They can’t just follow the melody, they have to stylize. And it grows tedious when in many cases it is unnecessary.