Exactly my reaction!

It wasn’t a conscious decision anymore, it was just what modern JavaScript looked like.

I almost stopped reading here. I don't agree that modern JavaScript looks like that. Why would it. Friends don't let friends lean too hard into a single code style pattern. These things are situational ffs.

Also,

Objects carry context

Yes but:

const { email: userEmail } = user;

Example seems contrived, sure, but the feature exists. Context added.

I don't know, to me this just reeks of someone who is still struggling with code style and more focused on the how instead of the why, even though they give the appearance of thinking about the why.