It's actually at the top of Reddit's r/AskHistorians recommended reading list[1]. And I in fact ended up choosing to read it instead of Guns, Germs and Steel after enough comments there suggested to me that it was more deeply based in academia.
I feel like you might not be that familiar with r/AskHistorians? It is the least reddit-like part of Reddit, it has extremely high standards and is rigorously moderated. Here are the most notable critical threads on Guns, Germs and Steel[1]. Just because Why The West Rules For Now might seem to be preferred by them doesn't necessarily speak to its reputation, seeing as GGS apparently sets such a low bar.
I don't see any problems with Ian Morris' article here. He is a writer, as well as an academic. The audience for the article seems to be for well-informed, non-specialised intellectuals. As such the article seems well pitched.
That settles the matter then
> was more deeply based in academia.
You surely can't read the above article and believe that?