Perhaps what bothers the author about e-bikes is that using a bike safely on streets requires hard-won skills, and riders who start out on an e-bike might get hurt before they acquire those skills. The faster the bike, the greater the probable damage.
Just this morning, as I was biking to work, a car came within an inch or so of hitting me, but I was moving slowly enough to avoid a collision. On an e-bike the story might have been very different.
Just like learning to drive, learning to bike takes some time and effort.
In the US it's considerably worse because our bike infrastructure is downright terrible in most cities.
I was biking in Amsterdam a year ago, and holy shit the difference is night and day (even with the shitty delivery guys doing 40mph on their gas scooters in the bike lanes).
Just this morning, as I was biking to work, a car came within an inch or so of hitting me, but I was moving slowly enough to avoid a collision. On an e-bike the story might have been very different.