I work at a very large company with very complicated systems. Fighting unnecessary complexity at every opportunity is the only way to keep things near comprehensible. A lot of the articles rules are even more important in complex environments.
Ive experienced this at work as well, even at a more modestly sized company.
You should always be chasing the simplest solution for your problem because no matter how smart you are today and how much you understand the problem and the abstractions, a year or two from now you’ll be a different person.
You might have new team members, or fewer, new management, marketing goals etc etc etc. Complexity is inherently difficult to change. My chasing simplicity, you are optimizing for potential change.
Me too, and I wouldn't apply most of OP rules to my day job. They just aren't a good fit. Sometimes using the right tool (e.g. Docker) actually decreases the overall complexity of the system, even if it raises it locally.
OP's approach might work for a personal project or a small company, but when you need to work in a large and complex system you start to appreciate the beauty of tools like Docker.
It's cool to question cargo cult, but don't throw the baby with the bathwater.