I can see how these tricks could be used to attract a certain kind of person (and repeal people like me) but fail to notice some inherent appeal in this design.

I can see how these tricks could be used to attract a certain kind of person (and repeal people like me) but fail to notice some inherent appeal in this design. We can all agree that monster buildings are suboptimal in general, buildings with smaller footprint on the ground tend to feel nicer, but if a monster is the only way I know which kind I prefer. Give me Hong Kong style architecture, with its visible age and protruding A/C units, over Las Vegas style any day. The first one is functional and alive, the other is shallow, excessive and dead. European brutalist buildings also look attractive to me (alas, mostly seen on photos). Beauty comes from function, and brutalism gives that function a little bit of form but doesn’t let it prevail. FWIW the author mentions that it’s the matter of taste. The rest of the article just made no sense to me.