I agree, but I'll go further than you - I don't think this essay is confusing at all. It's simply nonsense - the kind of thing someone clever writes when they're discussing a subject completely outside their area of competence.

I'm not sure what you're implying here, but Knuth does know what art is, as he almost majored in Music. See this for some recent work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_1a6bHGQGo