They use illustrations to sell the point because perhaps photographs wouldn't be so convincing.
For some pictures in California for example, see the California native plant society [0]. After visiting a native plant garden in SoCal I can't help but find the idea of a grass lawn absurd.
Aesthetically, you may be right. But yards are owned by and large by people with families. They have an important function to fulfill which is ruined by filling the space with plants.
However I rarely see anybody actually on those beautiful, irrigated lawns in Southern CA. People are usually inside or in an area with tiles or concrete on the ground.
There was grass in the mowed area, but also many, many other plants and insects. It was wonderful, as was the forest.
I find pure grass lawns very bland and unnatural, and in no way superior to a trimmed lawn with whatever plants happen to be growing. And you can have wilder areas too.
Perhaps you didn't mean 100% grass lawns, but that seems to be what a lot of American lawns aim for.
Beautiful No-Mow Yards: 50 Amazing Lawn Alternatives https://www.amazon.com/dp/1604692383/
Lawn Gone!: Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607743140/
In Colorado, check out the Colorado Native Plant Society or the Colorado Cactus & Succulent Society. Denver Botanic Gardens is also wonderful with outreach and education efforts, but they're not strictly focused on native plants (as far as I know).
Maybe it's because enough people have realized how nice their yard could be, maybe it's small spaces and hills, or maybe it's how difficult and irresponsible it would be to try to keep the grass green in the summer. Either way, I freaking love a lot of the landscaping around here, and have been extra-excited by yards massively overgrown with wildflowers, etc.
The areas that are more pleasant might be hard to replicate in a small space. You can't create a forest microclimate in a 1/4 acre yard.
In fact, an isolated 1/4 acre yard is an unnatural habitat in a lot of ways. The easiest thing to manage there other than a lawn is usually a crop of 8ft high weeds.
Yes you can! https://youtu.be/ng-VskDFPpM
It takes some work upfront to convert a lawn to a miniforest but it can be done.
Just imagine how wonderful suburbia could be if this was the norm and not the exception.
Edit: here's that same yard in early spring, where the fact that it's a normal suburban yard is more visible: https://youtu.be/CdthuPbn2uo . It's incredible how lush it is in the summer, you'd think it was miles away from civilization.
Further, I don't see what those trees have to do with the article's advice about native plants.
Surburbia might well be wonderful if that sort of backyard were the norm -- if we ditched the whole 19th and 20th century flight from urban agriculture -- I wouldn't mind being able to have a pig or a goat in the backyard, myself. But this article doesn't seem to have anything to do with that topic.
Convincing of what?