Two of the five "mistakes" aren't always mistakes. Popups often work really well, as pointed out in another comment by onion2k. Long-form sales pages (i.e. walls of text) also really work in many contexts. Sure you want to execute both of them well, but the basic ideas aren't necessarily mistakes.
Two others strike me as not really an issue or too vague to know whether it was an issue. Do beginner web designers really never use any padding and just cram everything next to each other, pixel by pixel? Can't say I've seen it. And are they really thinking too far outside the box? What would this even entail?
I'll give them navigation issue, but I can't say they offered much insight for beginners to actually work from and improve their navigation.
Two others strike me as not really an issue or too vague to know whether it was an issue. Do beginner web designers really never use any padding and just cram everything next to each other, pixel by pixel? Can't say I've seen it. And are they really thinking too far outside the box? What would this even entail?
I'll give them navigation issue, but I can't say they offered much insight for beginners to actually work from and improve their navigation.