I agree with the "what" but not with the "how".

The article essentially says that, for a junior to be hired, they should demonstrate the same experience as a senior: deploy real system that solve real problems, know how systems behave in production, etc. That is precisely the skillset that someone builds up in a professional environment, i.e. after being hired.

In my view and experience (20+ years in the field) the value of junior colleagues is not in what they already know how to do, but in the freshness of their ideas, and the ability to learn the skills required to bring those ideas to fruition.

So, I agree that the hiring pipeline is broken, but for a different reason: companies stopped looking at juniors as a long-term investment.

I can think of a few reasons for that. In any case, that mindset is to blame, not the "kids" and their education.