Being able to own a house and raise a small family should be something that the majority of people can attain. It shouldn't be like "winning the lottery" but it can seem that way for younger people, including myself.
The guy profiled has one child, who is disabled. The article describes his house as a "big house in the woods", but looking at the picture of their kitchen it is clearly not very "huge" and very far from the kitchens you'd see on HGTV. And the fixtures are 10+ years old.
I think heart-stirring profiles of people as examples of political and social issues are usually not good journalism, but maybe a benefit is that people could humanize whoever the boogeyman of the day is. This guy deserves some flak for putting his whole identity into his job and for believing too much in various political dei ex machina that promised to let him keep it, but "selfish" and "wrecking institutions"?