The last two paragraphs of the article touch exactly on this. They talk about another person who had a similar incident where his first attempt was rejected but the follow-up wasn't, and he explicitly mentions why _that_ is his problem: "the problem was that the system discriminated against me and made me appeal".

But yes, if you come in with a "this didn't actually happen, this is someone making a big deal out of nothing" mindset, that is the lesson you can take away from the article too.