What has USA? 0 nothing is mandatory there!
Nothing silly about that bit.
Let's just keep it simple. Bad things are bad things. Sometimes people try a bit too hard to justify bad things. Inadequate annual leave is bad thing and as a worker there is no way that you secretly benefit from that (unless you hate your family).
If I say any more than that then we are going to start getting really political so that'll have to do it.
I think calling ''cut scene'' and story plot a device to extend longetivity is a harsh statement.
I think you need to read the article a little more carefully overall. In many cases, they are not describing general mechanics; they are describing boring/timewasting implementations of those mechanics.
The article didn't say cutscenes; it said "unskippable cutscenes". Unskippable cutscenes are disrespectful of the time of the player, even in a story-based cutscene-focused game. If you don't like people skipping your cutscenes, then make better cutscenes, or present the content in a different manner. Don't punish the player for getting bored with your game.
Unskippable cutscenes are even more of an problem in examples where you have a save point, followed by a long unskippable cutscene, and then a difficult challenge that leads to a game over. It is extremely annoying. I've already seen your stupid cutscene 100 million times already, THANK YOU.
