Any methodology that forces a founder out of his/her comfort zone into the real world and have him/her talk to real paying customers is a great start. Lean Start-up methodology gets a lot of things right ; however the event which the author attended where people voted on ideas is not actual customer development. The author's contention that PayPal etc. did not use Lean Start-up Methodology is misleading. Lean Start-up methodology, from my limited understanding, is a distillation of what the successful companies got right.
Great thoughts, Lyle. As a 2x LSM contributor and 1x mentor, I fully support the program but of course, some ideas cannot be validated/invalidated in a weekend. :)