As I alluded to, there are definitely venues and shows where this would be universally annoying. For most types of say, pop music concerts, I think that people in the aggregate are definitely less annoyed by the phenomena if it is the only norm they know. Especially some of the examples the author of the article cites. I'm sorry, but any show that has a mosh-pit isn't going to have people terribly up in arms about people taking pictures if those people have been seeing that as standard behavior from day 1 of their concert-going life, at least compared to people who have been exposed to and remember different aggregate behavior.

Incidentally, this truth is exactly why this is a losing battle. The biggest offenders are younger people who don't see it as a big deal and don't have a frame of reference to compare it to because it's always been this way as far as they know. The number of people like you who are annoyed will sadly, never be large enough.

Again, there are obviously exceptions. If you go see Sigur Ros, you're going to piss people off no matter what. I just saw Kris Kristofferson play an acoustic set at a venue where the manager threw out two sets of people for talking during the show. It all depends.