I took the parent to use "brainstorming" in the sense of get everyone together in a room to solve some problem, consider design alternatives, etc.

The article you linked to is about a very specific style of brainstorming that was once very popular. (Basically throw out a bunch of ideas with no filter/criticism.) It's that type of brainstorming that research has largely discredited. I don't think anyone seriously suggests that people working together on a problem in a room never works.

Agreed that the HBR article attacks a strawman - or, at least, a style of "brainstorming" I have never participated in. To me, "brainstorming" is a small number of people (often just two!) sitting together and thinking through a problem. Personally, this has helped me much more than if I had just continued spinning on the problem myself.

>Agreed that the HBR article attacks a strawman - or, at least, a style of "brainstorming" I have never participated in.

I have. It has (mercifully) largely fallen out of fashion but it was a very popular "ideating" approach at one time.