The article stretches this idea over several paragraphs of fear-mongering; fretting over the possible Orwellian abuses a tyrannical Internal Revenue Service could impose on mild-mannered tax delinquents.
The original proposal of a pan-North-American shared database and other genuinely suboptimal ideas were scrapped in the revision a decade ago. You're probably thinking of this original iteration when you describe its unpopularity.
Which is false. They are able to use them for all purposes now (except for Minnesota, non-enhanced driver's licenses), because while the Phases of real ID prior to domestic air transport are in effect, all of those states -- and many others that are not fully compliant with Real ID -- have extensions [either granted after review, or shorter extensions while an application is reviewed] into 2016 to allow their licenses to be used for all purposes.) Minnesota (which also offers Enhanced Driver's Licenses which can be used for all RealID purpose and as border-crossing documents) and American Samoa [0] are the only jurisdictions that are out of compliance with Real ID for normal ID, and which therefore can't be used for RealID covered purposes which are in effect (domestic air transport isn't in effect yet, so IDs from those jurisdictions can still be used for that purpose.)
If DHS schedules Phase 4 -- which it has said it will not do with less than 120 days notice, and no earlier than 2016, and only after review of current readiness -- then licenses from jurisdictions (mostly states) that are not compliant and are not covered by a granted extension could not be used for domestic air transport, just as they can't be used for other RealID covered purposes (mostly access for federal facilities, with an exception for access for the purpose of applying for benefits) now. But it seems unlikely that they will schedule Phase 4 until all jurisdictions are ready, anyway.
I'm impressed with how good the top subthreads here turned out to be, with such bad seed material.