In my lab we did exactly what you are referring to. The thing that doesn't get headlines are the many labs where they delete genes and things go completely haywire and they have no idea why.
To again use a programming analogy, it's like when you change a variable for the height of an image and then your page doesn't load. You know you did something, but your code is so tightly coupled that it's hard to discern what's going on.
That's my point. DNA is tightly coupled, so if your boss came up to you and asked you "What is the absolute minimum lines of code we can run this business on?" Then you would feel the same way that I did when reading this article!