We used to fetch data with HOCs. That never worked well with typescript and was a big problem when you wanted to use more than one (ie, fetching multiple data sources). With hooks we just add separate hooks for each data source we fetch... and the hooks themselves are much simpler than HOCs.
Like the article mentions, hooks move up a layer of abstraction. I'm purging my brain of all the nitty gritty detail of React component lifecycles, because all I ever really cared about was getting data to update at the right time. And now that's the level I can operate at.
Yeah, it doesn't look like standard object oriented code that we're used to. Maybe they could have chosen a different syntax, dunno. But after you get used to hooks, the grass definitely is greener.