As for the idea that a judgment can be made - when viewing a portrait of a stranger - that the photographer has somehow "betrayed" the subject ... well, that's an interesting response, and I'm sure a true reflection of the viewer's feelings, but for me it says something more about the viewer than the photograph (sorry blansky). Not necessarily in a negative way, but the response is a strong one and indicates something about a clear and decided view of what portraiture "ought" to do or be.
I've no doubt this is true.
I once, may years ago had a lawyer call me and ask me to photograph a girl that was in car accident, and to make sure "I captured the scars", as he was using the picture for a court case.
So the girl (18ish) came in and I sort of expected a battered looking person but it was a considerable time after the accident and she looked pretty good actually. Although at various angles the scars were very visible. One thing about learning portrait lighting and how and why to use certain techniques to enhance the subject is the fact that you also know how to make them look pretty bad.
So seeing the girl has self esteem issues about the scars, and I'm sure she'd heard ad nauseum about how "bad" they were, I decided to take a bunch of pictures to make her look very good, and then a few for the lawyer to make her look very bad. I kind of wanted her to get her mojo back and see that she was still extremely attractive. So one set of pictures almost removed the scars (not with retouching but lighting) and the other set made them the dominant feature of her face and life.
So my moral to the story is, we have the ability and the responsibility, to our subjects to not trifle with their self esteem, because it matters not who you are, and what you say, your face is arguably the most important aspect of our self worth and esteem at least up until you are in your 50s and probably beyond. (Probably more so for women but men have healthy egos too.) It is your identifier of your identity and being. So when I see a technique like the photograph in question, that although interesting and with many features, also has the ability to damage the psyche of the person photographed it means a lot to me. Because in the back of people's minds is always, gee do I really look like that.
Others and the author can have their point of view, and that's perfectly fine, but when I comment on pictures, I comment on what I feel about something, not what is popular.