They really remind me more of Android widgets, which the article also mentions. Those were a killer feature for me for Android.
Hope at one point they can behave like true widgets--really miss things like the Hue widget on my Galaxy allowing me to control preset lighting at the tap of a button, without needing to navigate through the app.
Maybe this can be done through shortcuts as well? Haven't really invested the time and effort to develop my understanding of shortcut's possibilities.
The only action taken when you tap in one is open the app.
Android widgets have much more functionality.