I think you're being too harsh on this one. We live in a extremely complex world, and he's writing about something that 's (IMO) a multi-dimensional space. Am not clear about seeing the inconsistency(in this case) , nevertheless, in such complex spaces, inconsistent statements might result from an attempt to be complete.(Godels' theorem relevant here??).
The inconsistency is that I don't think anyone would say Google isn't one of the most if not THE most successful web era companies, and according to pg the founders weren't driven by a "spirit of benevolence" which in the current essay in question he attributes the most successful founders with.
