No, I don't think that's a fair reading. The article (and more importantly perhaps, the book the article is discussing) say perhaps Hawking should not have dom

No, I don't think that's a fair reading. The article (and more importantly perhaps, the book the article is discussing) say perhaps Hawking should not have dominated the field of theoretical physics for so long, especially in the popular imagination. That says nothing about where his sum contributions stand, only the direction his research took later in his career. If I were to read anything into the comparison, it's that - as also suggested in this thread - Einstein is perhaps also overblown compared to Einstein.