I'd argue it's not quite as terrible as the author suggests. Getopt(3), for example, uses it, so many programs pick it up from there. As do many popular getopt

I'd argue it's not quite as terrible as the author suggests. Getopt(3), for example, uses it, so many programs pick it up from there. As do many popular getopt() variations for other languages...Golang's "flag" built-in, for example. So it's not universal, but it's also more common than you might imagine.