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The intro course is a tough comprehensive overview.

No, it's not.

Students interested in such subjects typically take introductory courses like calculus or general chemistry
...
The investigators studied the records of student performance in introductory courses in physical sciences, life sciences, mathematical and computational sciences, and engineering to discern the likelihood of students earning degrees in these subjects.

What they mean by "introductory courses" are just the basic courses that almost every student takes unless their major is art history or dance or such. Chemistry, life sciences?, physical sciences (you take basic Newtonian Mechanics and E&M in HIGH SCHOOL)...? Sure, calculus might be more limited in which degrees require it, but if students can't easily pass this pile of basic courses, what makes anyone think they would have any chance of being successful in college whatsoever? Sure, I agree with you that they'll have trouble in more difficult classes that use and build on the subjects from these "intro" courses, but the problem goes much further than aptitude to be in 'STEM'.

I had to take an intro 1-hr "Problems in Mech and Aero Engineering" that UTA recently added for some reason. I transferred in with 65+ hours, but nothing checked the specific box for this class, so I had to take it, despite having credit for 5-6 courses it's a pre-req for... Sigh. The entire class was a waste of time half-teaching almost nothing but 3D vectors. I got an "amazing approach" comment for using the law of cosines (sines?) on a HW problem, since they never taught to use it, made the problem done in a couple steps instead of a pageful of vector crap. There were kids in that class that didn't know what the associative property for addition was. Not "didn't remember the difference between associative or commutative or etc..", but kids that had somehow never even been taught them in the first place. Granted, a bunch were international students from India, but this is 2nd grade material that COLLEGE kids were needing to be taught. You bet they needed to be switched to a history/liberal arts degree plan!

I assume you are taking recent courses. I assure you that traditionally the intros have been tough across the sciences.

You were in a program that was teaching to their uneducated incoming students.

The biggest issue in American education. Why I tell people to remove children from government schools and oversee their education.