I think this is a case of hyperawareness/catastrophizing - upon realizing the mindless interruption of CAPTCHAs, the authors have focused so intensely on the minor discomforts of monotonous, poorly composed, poorly shot pictures that the discomfort has grown through hyperbolic focus into a soul-destroying burden.
It's like anaphylaxis - a completely outsized and self-harmful reaction to a minor disturbance.
I think the minor disturbance is the article and the outsized reaction is calling it a “soul destroying burden”.
I’m primarily a software dev, but clients mostly value my skills in producing visually pleasing layouts and graphics. I’ve come to realise that good aesthetics are extremely valued by most. Even during the development process, nice looking layouts/design integrated early can immensely lift the team’s spirits.
I have observed though there a some people who seem to undervalue the need of aesthetics, are very quick to write it off as superficial, and may even have some very negative emotional responses to this “arty stuff”. I would chalk up much of the perceived divide between front-end and back-end developers stems from this negative emotional response.
Fair enough, I didn’t really explain my point very well.
I interpreted the authors choice of words more as an emotional critique of things like composition, colors, etc.
If I saw some poorly written code, and I happened to say, “this code destroys my soul” as a figure of speech. Most people would understand that I just have an intense distaste for the code, not I am not having an existential crisis.
From an artistic sense, if I analysed a single frame from the first scene of the Shining, I might use similar language to the author, even though objectively it is just a car on a road.
It's like anaphylaxis - a completely outsized and self-harmful reaction to a minor disturbance.