Of course I read it. And the key passage (to my mind) was this one:
"We’ve also been hearing that there wasn’t a whole lot of communication between the various teams behind say, Mail and Safari. And that there were multiple teams inside each group that were competing with various designs, leading to what some see as inconsistencies in icon design."
Allegedly, the branding/marketing teams first designed the icons and the other teams coordinated their designs based on those icons.
I don't know if you've actually used iOS7 but there is quite clearly a direction. It's a little unfocused in places but it's clear.