Why? It's how patents always have worked. And even with a maximum of 20 years for patents they are more often used to stifle innovation rather than encourage it.
Copyright and patents should start at 5 years, and then be possible to extend 5 years at a time up to 20 years if the company owning the copyright or patent can prove it's still in active use and not only used to prevent others from moving forward.
That's a lot of words to say nothing.It reads like it's written by big cement money since almost all arguments it brings up apply to concrete and steel as well, and that it comes to no conclusions just strengthen that feeling as it creates FUD without anything that could backfire. Of course it could also be based on actual research with real concerns about greenwashing that just communicates really poorly. But in any case there is nothing to be gained from this article.
I had hoped it would contain some data about origin, if local species are getting replaced, or anything else possibly interesting.