You should read it all. It's awful. Someone doesn't even have to understand much about audio science to go "WTF???"
Some of it it is stuff that "What Hi-Fi?" droned on about when I did read it "back in the day." It might be aimed at a broad audience, but it's always been "tweako."
"In the dark" listening I think is fine for an area to explore further, even if the Poppy Crum quote is out of context.
The last item is OK--pointing out AVR "all channels driven" performance. (Albeit "What Hi-Fi?" never bothers even to perform power output tests, so...)
I do, however, agree with you in relation to some items. Particularly "play CD's from the start." At least someone might believe that speaker cable risers do something for some pseudo-scientific reason or other... but that's just plainly absurd and off-putting.
And you may have a point that what worked as a printed periodical won't necessarily work on the web. I suspect it's a case of a journalist unthinkingly recycling the same old material, for the most part, though.
Mind you, the following is a blog post by the former editor of "What Hi-Fi?":
https://andreweverard.com/2019/01/16/the-cat6-sat-on-the-mat/
It's about putting a
network switch on top of damping material. Yes, really. I suppose if a veil isn't lifted, then a switch certainly is! (OK, bad joke.)
LOWE that!
http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/