I completely disagree, it's like the author misinterprets the point of MVPs from lean startups, and then argues against the misinterpretation.
MVP is a mindset. It's recognizing that the biggest risk most startups face is no one will want what they built.
An MVP is the smallest product you can build to test if anyone will want it.
If your product is "a podcast app with better ux" than you don't need to test whether there is a market for podcast apps. You already know there is. You're testing whether UX is enough of a market differentiator that people will use your product over other options. And to do this you need to build a "podcast that has a better UX than current podcasts".
If your product is "a crm with better reporting insights for companies that cold call" then maybe UX isn't as important as validating that these insights are valuable enough to some customers they will use product despite its lack of features and polish.
This often involves human ingenuity instead of software. One of the best examples of an MVP is Zappos, where the founder went down to a local Footlocker and took photos of all the shoes. He then uploaded them to his blog, added some margin on the price and had a buy button which emailed him whenever anyone clicked it. He’d then just run down, buy the shoe, add ship it over to the buyer.
A simple blog was turned into a e-commerce MVP and his idea was slowly validated.
MVP is a mindset. It's recognizing that the biggest risk most startups face is no one will want what they built.
An MVP is the smallest product you can build to test if anyone will want it.
If your product is "a podcast app with better ux" than you don't need to test whether there is a market for podcast apps. You already know there is. You're testing whether UX is enough of a market differentiator that people will use your product over other options. And to do this you need to build a "podcast that has a better UX than current podcasts".
If your product is "a crm with better reporting insights for companies that cold call" then maybe UX isn't as important as validating that these insights are valuable enough to some customers they will use product despite its lack of features and polish.