I'm not confident the article doesn't hinge on this kind of reasoning.

'A couple of bands have made an impression offline, like Karmin (if you
buy that it’s an actual “band,” not a vocalist/producer combo) and the
insufferable, car-commercial-scoring duo Pomplamoose, but they generally aren’t bands in the classic sense; they’re more like re-arrangers of pop music.'

Oh! We're on the same page, then. Sorry, AVC's conditioned me to read snark into the most innocuous comments.

But what suggests that the "initial pitch was a more transparent defense of New Girl's protagonist"?

"Writer Luvh Rakhe and creator Elizabeth Meriwether share credit
on the episode’s teleplay (with story by Rakhe), which suggests Rakhe’s
initial pitch was a more transparent defense of New Girl’s protagonist and star"

Yes.

'Jon Stewart would have used that image to illustrate a riff on Fox News
so disliking Romney that they're prepared to use not-quite-subliminal
techniques to pull him down; for Kimmel, it's an excuse to say that
Romney is such a "flip-flopper" that nobody can even be sure what race
he is.'