I use Linux because I like tweaking my system and that includes theming. I agree that people shouldn't report bugs if their custom theme makes an app goofy or broken but to suggest that people and distros should not use custom themes is ridiculous
Imo you and the author of the article seem to agree
You're not recommending blanket tweaks for all users and are savvy enough to remove the theme (or fix it) if it's breaking an app you want to use before reporting issues
My impression of the article is a request against generic re theming.
I suspect there's a better path forwards though. Eg distros could make their themes more modular (relocation of UI elements, changing colors, changing icons - maybe this already happens!) and then make it easy to toggle these when opening a new app (just like the OS gives you a minute to decide if your monitor display settings tweaks broke something for you)
