Launchpad was conceived from the perspective of an organisation optimising the process of working on and building Debian packages (Ubuntu/Canonical), designed the same way 90s three-tier systems were: database schema first, and built as a monolithic platform rather than iteratively as a user-facing product.

Zed Shaw is trying to divine the failures of Launchpad backwards. When you know the story behind it, it becomes brutally obvious. :-)