Spotting a warning sign is only half the skill. The other half is telling the difference between someone who is wrong for this and someone still learning it. The answer lies not in the fault itself but in its direction of travel, and in whether humility and honesty are present to correct it.
The benefits this series described are real. So is the disappointment of those who chased them and were burnt. Both can be true, because these benefits are not properties of BDSM. They are products of a structure taken seriously, and without it the same acts that refine will instead corrode.
The words survived the split. The meanings did not. Kink, casual BDSM, and the relationship the Dominus Effect framework actually describes share a vocabulary, which is why they are so often mistaken for each other.