Alumni of the IB Programme, how much do you agree with this criticism of the curriculum?

I stumbled across this article/blog today and was wondering how much you can relate to these issues and if you agree that there's considerable room for improvement when it comes to obtaining the diploma.

In a nutshell, this guy talks about how the grading schemes for examinations and papers doesn't really reflect a student's intelligence on a subject as it should, that TOK and CAS are implemented superficially, and essentially that too many false promises regarding the intellectual advantage of the program are made to those who join IB.

As a second year student, I thought several of these points hit home. I feel like the way subjects are taught are rather strict, leaving little room for the student to think about how this knowledge can be applied to the outside world (as it should be). Instead, the whole year is spent preparing us solely for the May exams. It bothers me how teachers have explicitly stated that the material we cover in class is because "that's how IB wants us to learn it".