That’s not what I took from the earlier article. The author is a designer/architect, and knows what works and what doesn’t and - more importantly - why. I think she was just pissed that some folks do a spectacularly piss poor effort at a job she takes seriously. Good architecture can be sublime, but someone in the process needs to know what they’re doing.
Also, I think you might be guessing a little too hard - like Goldschläger or Danziger Goldwasser, some folks buy expensive shit because it’s expensive. They wouldn’t really know whether it’s good, bad or indifferent, only that some style-meister has told them they need to have at least 6,000 sq ft and a 5 car garage for their summer beach bach, or $1,000 cocktails with hunks of inert metal in them.
(PROTIP: gold is tasteless, a property which stems directly from the reason it is deemed so valuable. Putting it in a drink is pure ostentation).
