Their journalist clearly flies on the wrong airline. Some have surprisingly good meals, given the constraints
Please expand on this! I can't remember the last time that I had a "surprisingly good meal" on an aircraft.
The only reason, as far as I can tell, for the dinner service is to interrupt your sleep with noxious fumes / in-flight entertainment watching with constant interruptions from crew.
The last flight I was on (16 hours on Qantas) it was so bad, for both meals, that the smell woke my daughter up and caused frequent trips to and from the loos to dispose of sick bags (hers, but I would feel the same were I not so used to the stench by now).