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.