There have been times where my longer term contractings jobs were normal jobs, except I had to pay for my own benefits. I think the government now frowns upon this practice though.
I worked with people exactly like the contractor in the article. This kind of person cares only about one thing; money. The project? Secondary. Coming to work regularly? Secondary. Finding every last tax deduction? Critical.
(I take it as a compliment that someone I work with told me, "wow, you're a contractor? I had no idea".)
There are two types of position that employers describe as "Contractor". The first is the type described in the article, where you bring in a guy for a short term and pay him roughly double what you'd pay a regular dev. The second type is where you bring in a guy, pay him the equivilent of a regular dev salary, but as an hourly rate, and don't give him any benefits.
This second type has a more common name: "Being taken advangage of."
Sounds like that's the type of "contracting" you were doing. Congrats on getting out of it.