It’s hard to tell from the comments here, but the author actually ends her article on a hopeful note and offers concrete proposals on how we could fix the shortcomings of Web Components and fulfill its promise:
– No dependencies beyond one <script> tag
– Syntax and API in line with conventions of built-in HTML elements
– Accessible by default via ARIA
– Themeable via ::part(), selective inheritance, and custom properties
– Only one component of each type in the directory
Which proposals would be beneficial is up for debate (esp. the last one IMO) but they’re worth highlighting and discussing.