Aside from the aside that digital publishing is a relatively new consideration in this sort of market analysis, absolutely nothing in this article isn't old news. For a hundred years, and especially in the late 20th century, trad publishers have gambled money on books and often don't win.  Blockbuster books have always subsidised midlist authors. Celebrity tell-all books and memoirs (sporting and political in particular) have always been bafflingly popular. Huge advances have sometimes failed, "sleepers" have sometimes inexplicably been best-sellers. The amounts being paid now are 21st century, but otherwise the business model in regards to curating a publishing list is exactly the same.
Even having to promote yourself as a trad author is nothing new. You had a four-week window of care-factor from the publisher after your book hit the shelves before they moved on to the next title. Savvy authors spent all year grinding through book club meetings, speaking at any sort of event where an author might be welcome ... an old trick was offering book stores that you'd sign their store copies to give them more appeal — sounds cool, but it prevented the stores from returning those copies as "Returns".
The greatest factor in success is still luck. There are so many best sellers that publishers will admit they can't explain the popularity in comparison to a dozen identical titles.
Tradpub was very, very slow in acknowledging the digital revolution, and it did look in danger of extinction. Now it dominates it with sheer money. You can be sure that when a Big Five publisher releases a new blockbuster, it sure as hell doesn't log into the KDP dashboard. Exclusive deals and agreements are reached behind closed doors.
Trad publishing has been adapting fast. It ain't going anywhere soon. Indie publishing on the other hand is drowning in a mire of its own making. The "tsunami of crap" it was accused of 15 years is now very real.

Nope, tradpub will never die.  Indie will never die.  Writers sucking up to rich "patrons of the arts" will never die.  Nor will buying their beer and sausage w/an academic salary as they write.  Relative success of each will go up and down.  But all will survive.  We've just got to ride the waves.  Or maybe mix 'em up.   

There was quite a bit of discussion of the article and similar items over on Substack. (It may not be immediately obvious, but the article is, in fact, a Substack post. People can use their own domain name on Substack if they want.)

Anyway, I don't recall all of the give-and-take, but the gist was that the quotes in the article don't tell the full story.

Here's a sample of the response. https://countercraft.substack.com/p/yes-people-do-buy-books?

We all know that trad publishing has its issues, but keep in mind that the publishers quoted were involved in antitrust litigation and eager to make the best case they could for how terrible things are.

Interesting that the bread-and butter earners for trad pubs are now franchise authors. Still genre, just less trend-driven.

From what I see on reader forums, there are voracious Romance readers determined not to pay anything for their books. They use Libby and other sources like that. At a guess some have no problem with piracy. However, I don't believe "no one" buys books. As a voracious reader myself I have a monthly book budget to keep it under control and do get ebooks from the library and KU, and also use up that book budget every month. There are even a few authors whose overpriced traditionally published ebooks I buy every year rather than wait until I can get them at the library. I also see a lot of posts on those forums by readers who are like me or who do buy hard copies of their books.