Oddly, after reading your comment, I tried to think of how to describe it --- and settled on elitist NYC hippness. There were some of the old repeated notes that describe John (and Teresa) Kerry with none of the admiration routinely given to others in power.
Yet, very key credit is prominently and unambiguously given --- Kerry made the Iran deal happen -- and further, in describing the way it happened, they are clear that a year ago, others spent much time on "plan B", which included more sanctions - even though they were already onerous - or even war. (They do not include that there is considerable proof that Israel seriously considered war) What this means is that Kerry because of his persistence, character, relationships and skill very likely did what we all hoped he would as SoS - he make the world more peaceful.
The timing of the article means it was written before it became clear that there would be a climate change agreement -- which like Iran -- was something pushed by Kerry and used his relationships and willingness to create a solution that was different than anything used for previous agreements. Therefore, a significant accomplishment on climate change is just an item - with Syria, ISIS etc of things Kerry could accomplish in the future. It is telling that some articles are crediting just Obama and a few (strangely) Obama and Clinton. On twitter though, almost every one of the climate change orgs thanked Kerry .. and Obama.
This article in describing the meetings around Syria explain this to some degree. Kerry seems to be purposely and quietly working to move people to points where they can at least start to negotiate. This has to be like covering ice melting for the media, especially in our attention deficit age - whether the goal is climate change, ending the war in Syria, or preventing one in Iran. Even when there he achieves significant interim accomplishments, it may be that if Kerry made the story about his accomplishment in moving another country's position, it would make his job harder. Not to mention, the terrorist attacks on Paris were a far bigger story than the announcement the next morning in Vienna that a meeting that included both Iran and Saudi Arabia had developed a plan that had a goal of getting Syrian negotiations and a ceasefire by January.
On the Syrian chemical weapons, I suspect the problem is that though Kerry was instrumental in getting rid of 600 tons of chemical weapons, clearly an objectively good outcome, very few were "on his side" through this. The anti war, non interventionists were angry that he was a spokesperson for a small targeted attack; the neo cons wanted a BIG attack that was more about regime change than chemical weapons. The groups - for different reasons - credited just Putin and the neo cons argued it was a US loss.
At this point, ending the war in Syria could end up being as impossible as getting a two state solution in Israel. Yet, in both cases, he really did get further than anyone expected already. The sections on Israel are strange - GHWB failed, Bill Clinton failed, Condi Rice failed and George Mitchell failed to get a two state solution -- yet Kerry's attempt is treated differently and more negatively. Yet, I suspect the entire article supplies the answer. Like both Iran and climate change, all the wise voices argued that getting a solution was unlikely and when that proved true, they all said their "I told you so". If you try three near impossible things - and only two work, it's not bad! I liked Frank Lowenstein's comment that all of them are glad they tried.
After reading the entire thing, you see a good person, working extremely hard who - as the title says - likely prevented a war and is working diligently to bring a bloody civil war to an end. Add to that that since it was written, we know that he also deserves credit for the climate change agreement.
Given JUST the climate agreement, Iran, brokering the Afghanistan joint government, the Syrian chemical weapons deal -- he is the best secretary of state in my life time and one of the best ever.
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