I don't think there's broadly "idiomatic" C++. There's "idiomatic Google C++" though.

Not in a literal sense of the word, perhaps. But in practice, "idiomatic C++" is taken to mean STL- and Boost-like.

While what's idiomatic is subjective, I think there's plenty that everyone can agree is not idiomatic, so I think GP's quote is still pretty commonly used

I think we can all agree that actively re-purposing the postfix-- operator to perform a dereference on a smart is definitely not idiomatic.

Idiomatic might be fuzzy, but it definitely does not include active attempts obfuscation, malice or jokes. The code in the article could be any of these depending on context.

Yep, no arguments here!