Screw Gizmodo.
But regarding the article itself, seems to be a nothing-burger. Once upon a time, we favored shorter complex passwords. Now, we favor longer intuitive passwords. The end.
EDIT: I see the link in OP is now a WSJ link. It was a Gizmodo link at first. Hence my comment.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4771194/The-m...
I now predict an uptick in people using 'correctbatteryhorsestaple' as their password...
It always is.
At least that's slightly better than "correcthorsebatterystaple" which appeared in the XKCD. The really funny part is that I automatically noticed this when reading your comment because I have "correcthorsebatterystaple" so fully committed to memory that I noticed when you deviated.
For me it was the opposite. My brain automatically read it as "correcthorsebatterystaple" despite what was written, just as it would with a small typo in a word.
What goes to show something, because most people discussing passphrases do not care to point that it's about mental images, not text. It's either so obvious that it doesn't have to be said, or so non-obvious that nobody gets it, even after reading the XKCD.