Exactly as dire as worded and more dire for the "larger change that will be coming later on" . And yep, this one rings true. IMHO, it seems likely that this would be one of the intended end games of ID checking. IMO, bureaucratic < zeros who believe ID = security are likely to desparately want to raise the stakes for those effectively thumbing their noses at that concept by refusing to show a TS "officer" their ID.
Welcome to a country of internal travel documents and police permission to fly. All this is happening with court assistance/compliance, while our politicians are refusing to help stop a complete removal of the right/expectation to be left alone while engaging in completely legal pursuits.
Personally, I hope this and the larger change go through. The personal interest news stories of purse/wallet theft victims who have lost all ID having that injustice compounded as they're stranded by a TSA supervisor, backed up by the airport Barney Fife (believe me, IME the cream of the local PD is not often assigned airport duty) may be enough of a body shock to the general public to cause more average Joe's to start to ask just W T F is going on here.