I found it pretty coherent, actually. The author is trying to reset our focus from the technical details of how Rails works to the bigger picture of how the market for web technology has evolved over time. All the more important for those of us with "skin in the game," which I'm guessing means coders, because we tend to be myopic about our little world of symbols and tools, and often get caught clueless when the rug gets pulled out from under us by market forces that are indifferent to which design patterns are objectively better than others.