Singling out Firefox isn't particularly fair: Chrome has the Content Settings panel (which allows you to disable images and javascript), Safari lets you disable javascript, and IE certainly did both, at least historically. This article just reads like beating up everybody's favourite browser punching bag to me.
Every feature has its place, and when you start pandering to the lowest common denominator of users is when you've decided that you know better than everybody else.
The author is "now doing Product Design Strategy at Mozilla ". What you're saying is true, and likely the author has realized it as well, but "fairness" is probably less of a priority to him than fixing the product he's responsible for.
"Do not show any images" under two links is a lot better than Auto Load images in a tab, javascript disabling is a lot more useful than he implies, IE has been beaten enough as it is.
I felt he chose Firefox because a lot of that UI was designed after IE and never changed. At least most other browsers seem to have thought about what to show in easy to get to pages.
Every feature has its place, and when you start pandering to the lowest common denominator of users is when you've decided that you know better than everybody else.