4. Bugs are caught by costly human beings (often used to execute "system level tests") instead of pieces of code.
The author went to some length to point out (correctly) that test automation is an orthogonal issue. Reading beyond the title, we see the issue is that an obsession with unit tests, and especially an obsession that is focused entirely on a measure as simplistic as code coverage, tends to result in a sub-optimal use of development resources (which are always limited.) A redundant or otherwise unhelpful test (of any sort) does not gain value by being run automatically.
The author went to some length to point out (correctly) that test automation is an orthogonal issue. Reading beyond the title, we see the issue is that an obsession with unit tests, and especially an obsession that is focused entirely on a measure as simplistic as code coverage, tends to result in a sub-optimal use of development resources (which are always limited.) A redundant or otherwise unhelpful test (of any sort) does not gain value by being run automatically.