I haven't read that article, but what you say touches on something I've been saying with friends for awhile now. Westworld and Lost are polar opposites of the mystery box show. Both are serious serial dramas which rely on mystery and hooks to keep an audience guessing and gets watercooler buzz with big reveals, but the difference is that in Westworld the emphasis is on working out the overall narrative of the puzzle box so it all fits, while in Lost the emphasis was on building a cast of characters with interesting stories and situations and making up puzzle pieces to fit where they want to go.
Where Westworld succeeds in their approach is that people can follow clues and pieces of info without feeling cheated because it all adds up and when reveals happen you can say "it was there all along" for real. But where it fails is that the majority of the cast are hollow characters with no lives, weak personalities, and their actions seem to only serve the plot. Where Lost succeeds is that they create a compelling ensemble cast of characters with varied backgrounds and tell very interesting stories with each of them. In the end the mysteries don't really add up, it's clear a lot was pulled out of their ass, but there were so many interesting characters and stories that the world felt alive even if the mystery narrative disappointed. In contrast, Westworld feels like a pretty scenario someone dreamed up, but nothing is real or particularly relateable to me. I just watch it to watch Hopkins own his scenes, and the rest is breadcrumbs, high concept themes, and talking about clues and theories with people on the internet.
