Enjoyable article. I would note that Starbucks coffee has, for me, tasted the same since I first drank it almost 40 years ago when it had 3 stores. It’s not my favorite but I enjoy darker roasts. For what it’s worth, I find the brews at specialty coffee outlets today that offer only light roasts to be flavorless. Baristas there look down their nose at folks like me who ask about darker roasts.
I had great darker roasts in Costa Rica, where the darker roasts allow them to reuse beans, which I found to be a prevalent practice there.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Coffee quality has improved so much for the better in the last 40 years since Starbucks and others made better quality coffee widely available. Maybe there are better options now but I’m glad they came along.