I can't defend this from being called a puff piece. However, I am bemused by the fact that that description was not for a Temple of Dog video.

That is, for all the vitriol in your post, you didn't really pick an excerpt that backs your point. That part of the article doesn't claim that this video pioneered the look. Rather, it asserts it as a solid example of the look pioneered by Alice in Chains that came to define much of that era.