You could just remove the bars and present the numbers in a table. In this case I think that would be a considerable improvement (unless the chart is one of several similar charts that one might want to compare, in which case being able to compare their shapes at a glance would have value).
For sure! It is all about context of use and the audience. I think the pie chart also serves its purpose in the right context and in front of the right audience. I would probably write a much longer article using different charts to illustrate all the various contexts but I don't want to be writing a textbook in the era of short attention spans. In this case, picking a bar chart to illustrate some principles clearly isn't going to satisfy everyone :p
But I will perhaps add a couple more examples based on all the comments and feedback so far. If nothing else I certainly enjoyed getting more people thinking and talking about how we can improve data visualization design!
