also surely “scientist experiments on themselves” is far too broad to dismiss out of hand

I don't think any in the list are dismissals. If you remove every item, you're left with nothing that can be said about anything in scifi. The items also include plots used by acknowledged authors in celebrated stories.

This is like TV Tropes: a trope is neither good nor bad, it just is. It can be overused, it can be subverted, it can be played straight or played with, but the one thing you cannot do: avoid tropes entirely.

I’m not suggesting tropes are bad or good in themselves, I’m just suggesting that the tone of this article is pretty dismissive

Right, misread your comment. Yes, the article is a bit dismissive, and I think it's a mistake on the author(s) part.