Maybe I missed it, but what does the author even mean when they say "understanding people", and what is it that devs don't "understand"?

What I tend to see is junior devs having inappropriate levels of confidence (either too high or too low) and their superiors taking advantage of it for their own gain. Is that what we're talking about? Because otherwise I don't see social awkwardness, but fear being mistaken for "passion".

The majority of the time a dev wants to talk technical details is because they want validation or expect a certain level of input from the rest of the team, especially leadership. It's perfectly reasonable for such a person to become frustrated when that doesn't happen. This isn't a lack of understanding from the dev, but maybe a lack of communication and a few naive assumptions on their part.