I don't think that's particularly true. The whole point of the Millennium Prize problems as the article states was not on absolute difficulty of the problems but on the high chance of a proof producing fruitful results leading to new concepts and theories. Any pursuit of capital T truth will of course aim for better and more clarifying abstractions and is not a subjective turn by any means.
What you describe is Tao's rebuttal of #2. I fully agree with him there.
It's his rejection of #1 that makes me sad.