People want instant gratification these days. It takes time to understand stuff.
The Internet (and crappy TV about popstars and shit) has lead to people having completely unrealistic expectations of everything.
The problem is that most people's response is "I'd rather give up on it than get over it", so we wind up with a math-illiterate society. If we can make it easier to be math literate, then we encourage a better world. (Your response, which is quite correct, reminds me of http://www.marco.org/2012/02/25/right-vs-pragmatic.)
I'm not taking a position on the argument expressed in the article; I'm merely noting that your argument is so infinitely applicable (even recursively applicable, back every step of every path of technological and notational improvement) that it is effectively useless as a way to determine the best path to follow.