I have not read the article, but I've been voicing critique at MS' hush hush (a.k.a shut up and ship) philosophy for years. MS knows how to communicate with CTO's and IT specialists, but they are at a loss when communicating with consumers. IMHO the user voice website and Belfiore's occasional tweets just don't cut it.
MS still isn't communicating a vision. At least from the outside, WP appears to be just a me-too product. WP was once marketed as the most personal smartphone, which is a good idea, but that just doesn't fly when most people understand that to mean 'setting your own background picture', which WP didn't support at the time. Now it is less clear than ever what WP's ambitions are or if WP even has any. There is nothing aspirational or emotional to market or for consumers to latch on to. I think the best way to achieve that is not through marketing, but primarily through products that speak for themselves, complimented by people from the dev team openly discussing (vaguely) where they are headed and (in detail) what their own expectations are and what they hope to improve in the near future.