There's nothing fundamentally wrong with Pictorialism. I like Pictorialism quite a lot. As Omer notes, Sally Mann is a Pictorialist, and my regard for her literally could not be higher. I also quite like a lot of the victorian era work that falls under the label.
Pictorialism does not, so far as I can see, need a philosophy, but the practitioners of it were rather philosophical in ways that the author of this piece does not appear to be which may or may not be salient to my actual point which is, roughly, that if you want to think of this beyond "cool pix, bro" you could do worse that peruse the various arguments for and against Pictorialist ideas and methods, of which there is a tremendous and rich historical record.