I am not sure I would call it an anti-pattern, that's probably my main polemic with the article. The situation really is that someone has a unique understanding

I am not sure I would call it an anti-pattern, that's probably my main polemic with the article. The situation really is that someone has a unique understanding or knowledge about some system, and the issue is whether you trust them or not. But modern human society is built on this principle! The only thing that sounds anti-pattern-ish about it is potentially low bus factor. I am well aware that today's society prefers foxes (people who have shallow knowledge of many things) to hedgehogs (people who have deep knowledge of few things), and I think it's wrong and unfortunate (because it actually quite heavily depends on hedgehogs). The article is, IMHO, a good example of this line of thought.