I'm of the mind that this is about what I'd expect from people who are generally more concerned with less-tangibles like culture and product, but I don't really know if that's the general background of the personnel hired.
My suspicion is that if you looked at most agencies you'd see this same kind of apparent frivolity but in a way that makes it less easy to track. It also bears repeating that while some of the stories presented in the article are excessive, 18f has always seemed to me to be more aimed at being a force multiplier for other agencies rather than just boots on the ground. When I worked in government non-profit (of the IRS designation, that is!) we spent quite a bit of "non billable" time doing exactly that instead of providing services directly. Once I started consulting in the private sector though, the billable hour became much more important.