I think the article has a valid point. My best converting (by a huge amount) niche sponsor is still YNP. There can be only 2 reasons for this, firstly the tour isn't over exposed as it's either 100% my design or their 'standard' tours with changes. Secondly and I think most importantly when they leave my site they go straight to the signup page, that way glitches in the tracking be it cookies or fucked software (ifreinds is a good example) don't come into play.
I don't believe true shaving is quite as prevelant as people make out although it obviously does happen. More usually the reason is probably shagged tracking software. Still, we had this debate a little while ago and the bottom line is how much $ a sponsor makes you. If they make you more than others then it's all fairly irrelevant. If they make less move on to someone else.