So let me start off by saying I enjoyed your article, but when people talk about crunch times they often get it wrong, or just think that it is explotiation of the devs, which isn't really the case.
Let me start off by saying I took a year of Video Game Design and Development ( it was a two-year course but dropped out after a year due to the colleges reputation) and we learned a lot about the video game industry.
Crunch time is needed and will never be rid of. The most often use of "crunch" time is near the end of the development cycle and the last few weeks leading to launch. Everyone is trying to get all the bugs worked out and make sure the game ships in a working state.
The Crunch time can be brutal with devs working for days to get the product ready for launch, but this is what devs signed up for.
Let me clarify some more.
The video game industry is one of the industries that offers the most perks to it's employees. Most triple A companies offer things like food on site, free access to their gym, etc. And they're also the ones who offer one of the greatest amount of paid vacation a year, with the triple A studios usually offering 6 weeks paid vacation a year, and smaller studios offering 4. This is because working in the video game industry can be stressful, especially during crunch times.
When it comes to crunch time, every dev, or even every college student looking to become one will learn about the horrors and what to expect from it. There's a couple of dirtbag companies out there that will try to nickle and dime their employees anyway they can, but to think that the majority of companies are out there to screw over their employees or that "crunch" time is unfair, or completely unexpected is wrong.