I had the Capslock on without knowing it and almost wrote this in all caps.
(That's what I get for not looking at the screen when I type.)
I don't think the issue is with the Friend Zone as a concept. I think the people you and those articles (the first specifically, since it's the only one I read) are against makes sense, but blaming the term itself is a misappropriation of guilt. The Friend Zone is an abstract social concept not unlike the feeling of social awkwardness. It's a situation that can be called upon and explained in two words.
The problem is that people like to whine and bitch about everything, and sometimes they blame others, and sometimes they blame situations. The term itself doesn't come with sexist implications--like I said earlier, I've placed people in the Friend Zone before, and I'm a male. This alone flips any ideas about sexism on its ear to me, since my primary knowledge of the Friend Zone isn't as the Zonee, but the Zoner.
So everything you said is fine, because I also dislike people who point fingers and act like children. But to make that somehow the Friend Zone's fault doesn't ring true to me, since that's not the way I've come to know it.
An example would be if I asked you out, Vasha. You'd say no (I'm hoping, because this would be awkward
), but you may still want to be my friend. If I accept this compromise, I am now in the Friend Zone--a social situation in which one of two friends wishes the friendship to become something more. Nothing petulant, nothing sexist.
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I mean, um, er, no, I'm not interested. 
