There may be some snark, but it's entirely appropriate. I think it's a piece written for designers, who regularly have to deal with micromanagement from talentless, egotistical people. Except in Uber's case, things were ten times worse than usual.
Indeed, I'm not a massive fan of Uber, but the continual snark against both Uber and Wired in the piece made me dubious about taking the critique seriously.
Would have been better if he took a more objective look at Uber's redesign instead of taking the time to bash the CEO or the designers.