It looks like the only person who described them as useless is the editor who wrote the headline, and they did it in an incredibly disingenuous (and grammatical

It looks like the only person who described them as useless is the editor who wrote the headline, and they did it in an incredibly disingenuous (and grammatically incorrect way) by putting quotes around it. That implies that someone in the study used the word useless, which doesn't actually appear to be the case.