As it turns out is quite innocuous

I totally agree. I was trying to discern whether or not the author of the original post on jsomers.net was on to something, but it's more a case (it turns out) of a solution looking for a problem. Using the phrase "it turns out" isn't an indicator an author is intentionally trying to "slip one past" the reader in a dishonest way. As with anything a reader has ultimate responsibility of evaluating the credibility of the author and claim - no matter how it's phrased. Let's look at the first PG example: "...I thought one day I’d do some angel investing. Seven years later I still hadn’t started. I put it off because it seemed mysterious and complicated. It turns out to be easier than I expected, and also more interesting." Here the claim is that angel investing, rather than being mysterious and complicated, is easier than the author expected. Well, in this case the author can certainly qualify as a credible expert on the subject, so we can recognize his ability to make that claim no matter what the phrasing. For this particular example, it's even harder to challenge the author's assertion because the claim is relative to his beliefs.

As a side note, I wonder where the colloquialism "it turns out" stems from. My first guess was of the turns of laundry emptying out the pockets of clothing, but I think that's too modern a possibility. I think something more likely might be taking the turns of roads and ending up at a particular destination.

Who cares???

A superficial look suggests to me that in most cases, the "it turns out" could as well just have been left out (it turns out the "it turns out" could have been left out) without changing the meaning of the sentences. So it is more like a filler, like, really, (some English major please step in, I am not even a native speaker).

There must be software by now that warns you of "sloppy writing"? If not, might be worth looking into?

I have noticed that I tend to write "though" and "although" all the time, but have not yet found a remedy. I hope this doesn't invalidate all the comments I ever mad.

Didn't PG make his articles editable some while ago? So someone could just edit out those "it turns out" and we can bury the subject.

It turns out it turns out turned out into something else.