The customer's in-house developers raised their hackles and had reservations about using the product, even though the customer's in-house solutions were terrible, because the customer's in-house developers wanted to build it themselves. I'm not sure if the article wasn't well worded and you misunderstood, or if it's me who doesn't see the irony.

Well, this is a very one-sided take. Imagine being a dev tasked with evaluating a product that makes you look redundant and also costs the company license fees in perpetuity. Whereas building a homegrown solution ensures that you keep your job, and get to look like a rockstar who saved the company money. Gee, I wonder which one the devs picked.