Langewiesche.articles ( remember the AF447 one) are written like mini-novels , with drama, adding personal " human " quotes, and therefore they are well received by the public . The problem here , like in the AF447 and the MH270 ones , is that he speculates a lot and present some of his ideas , or even rumors as kind of facts.
That said , his audience is the general public, not aviation professionals.
To his defense, he knows aviation and goes on to location to interview people ( or try to ) to write his pieces, something many other journalists fail to do.
His piece about the kids school in Jakarta is correct , yes it is just like this. I have been there and talked to the people running this "academy" which is run like a military camp. Yes those kids will be in the RHS of a 737 or 320 a year later after max 75h or real flying in a TB20. . But same in other parts of the world including Europe.
One thing that he does not emphasize in his piece is that the very poor accident rate in the country is vastly due to equatorial weather conditions and extremely poor infrastructure, lack of nav aids, etc.. Add corruption at all levels preventing any oversight, plus everybody else working around the system receiving extremely low salaries , forcing them to get a second , or sometimes 3rd job to sustain a family, and you get the environment .
The actual quality of the pilots is not the real problem in Indonesia, as this article would want the public to believe. I think this article is just preparation work to reassure the US public that it will be safe to fly again in the max in the coming months because they will be operated by US pilots. .
Clever.