I think there is a distinction to be drawn between the culture that Julie Klausner is decrying in her article and the culture that the responders are defending. (The rest of this article is arguably a very long-winded way of saying "hipsters ruin everything".)
As with most societal trends, there are roughly three phases this went through:
In the first phase, there were a bunch of 20-somethings with lots of disposable income, working in tech, realising that they had escaped the social war zone of school and now had peers that weren't going to laugh at them at the slightest sign of weakness. They felt secure enough to admit they still liked "childish" activities and quite consciously decided to take them up again. They also felt secure enough to make forays into things like baking which were considered far too domestic for men or women to do without attracting derision. Cupcakes, for example, are more convenient to transport and easier to bake than big cakes, and hence looked like a good entry point to baking.
In the second phase, another bigger group of 20-somethings with a bit less disposable income and self-confidence saw this first group baking cupcakes, cooing over kittens, visibly enjoying Superman comics and consuming their own body weight in bacon. They realised that they were now safe to do these things as well. They weren't going to expose themselves to ridicule. Much as the first group, they quite consciously decided to take up these activities in opposition to the social norms that had been drilled into them, but they simply lacked the confidence to be first ones.
In the third phase, this subculture became sufficiently visible and diverse to become cool. A massive third group of people joined. But these people only saw its surface detail. Now the trend was no longer about being brave (and mature!) enough to embrace childish and domestic things. Now the trend was about a specific list of things:
- cupcakes
- cute baby animals
- crafts
- bacon
- animation and comics
- terrible movies
- girlish or boyish clothes, converse sneakers
- 8-bit video games
Now the trend was about fetishising these specific things. Now it was about being cool, and belonging, and wearing, doing, liking the right things, in the name of social acceptance and getting laid. And with this massive third group came the monetisation of the culture. Because only the surface detail matters, it's more effective to buy a T-shirt that reads "I ♥ cupcakes" than actually ever baking any.
It's this third group Klausner is really arguing against, and it's the members of the first and second group who read her words and feel mis-represented and insulted.
Of course, this is the trajectory that every major trend has followed, probably for centuries. You start out with a bunch of people doing things for a reason. A second group of people like what they see and join in. Then the trend hits the mainstream and gets stripped of all its depth and meaning and petrified into a caricature of itself.
Some very broadly drawn examples:- Hippies: "We live in a morally bankrupt society run by hypocritical warmongers. We need to discover a different way of living that will avert the nuclear armageddon we fear." -> "Let's take all the drugs and emotionally abuse and control one another in the name of Free Love."
- Punks: "We're not going to listen to self-appointed authorities! We want to get back to the real world, make real things, say what we mean and wear sensible shoework." -> "I can be a complete asshole - and get paid for it - because I'm so punk!"
- Rave: "Peace! Love! Unity! Respect! Let's all dance until we're really happy!" -> "Hey, want to score some E cut with chalk and the contents of a medicine cabinet, then go back to my tent for some less-than-consensual making out?"
- Everett Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations idea. The three waves I've identified map pretty directly onto Innovators, Early Adopters and Early/Late majority.
- Charles Stross' Second Artist Effect, where "The first artist sees a landscape and paints what they see; the second artist sees the first artist's work and paints that, instead of a real landscape."