The author's case that the cards compete against old cards (and as such are late) is, in my opinion, dumb.
Intel had nothing else to compare their products against as they're the first to release this generation. Once AMD and Nvidia make their cards available, the situation might change (or not, who knows). The fact that Intel now has an offering that performs objectively well (1440p at 60 fps, better raytracing than AMD, good video encoders) at they price point shows that the design they chose isn't inherently flawed and that they ironed out the kinks.
Personally I'm positively surprised by the progress they made in a single generation - people called entering the market nigh impossible with how much of a lead AMD and Nvidia had.
I'm rather happy they are in the mid range price segment, I'm sick of seeing cards that cost more than full gaming systems did 10 years ago.