I never encountered the mentality described in the article during my physics PhD, either. Though it was stressful at the time, having committee members who were

I never encountered the mentality described in the article during my physics PhD, either. Though it was stressful at the time, having committee members who were known for asking tough questions was invaluable as a motivator to learn more about underlying theory. It's of course very important that the process be conducted respectfully and constructively, and I had the fortune of being in a department with a healthy culture in that regard. All the people I know who were not so fortunate experienced unduly harsh, personalized, and non-constructive criticism. I'm not sure whether or not that's worse than never being critical, but they are kind of equivalent in that they create barriers to students engaging with the science. What is described in the article is not at all ubiquitous as some commenters are implying, and afaik is essentially unknown in the hard sciences and math.