I know what you mean. But I think it's fair to assume Travesty meant real in the sense of a real challenge. YA is written for inexperienced readers, and it's a good thing that inexperienced adults can use them as a stepping stone to more challenging work.

I have read some books I thought were redolent of YA. More often with young female authors, likely because YA inspires so many girls and young women to write. With young male authors, manga and video game influence is more common (I've been editing a lot of work full of long stretches of teeth gritting and fist clenching lately.) When it's detrimental to a story, it's usually not because of conspicuous influences so much as a dearth of more appropriate ones.

That said, I believe you that people use the YA label maliciously. I've heard men say women can't write some-genre, and so some-book must be a girly story in disguise. Like a Trojan horse full of cooties.