Follow the money: who is funding them.

They interact much too strongly with the biggest shitcoin of all and so they have a hard time telling it like it is.

I don't see anything out of the usual. Bitcoin blocks still being found about every 10 minutes.

Bitcoin was never issued by a company. It has no marketing department, no CEO, no individual in charge to call up to reverse, recover or block a transaction, no lobbying arm, no finance department, no bank, no one, except for its grassroots userbase.

These company scrip that we call shitcoins do have those things and they need a story about why Bitcoin sucks to sell their token. Their CEOs, lobbying arms, finance departments, Venture Captial investor shareholders, and marketing departments will do and say anything to scam people.

Larger tx fees != "grind to a halt"... longer confirmation times maybe, but this article reads like it was written by someone who doesn't understand how proof of work works.

Die zur Freude der Minner waren Gebühen sehr hoch.

The fees went up temporarily due to people issuing coins on top of BTC which is exactly how the system is supposed to work.

CoinDesk didn't want to pay those fees (which are now much lower). They either didn't understand what was happening or used it as an excuse.