I thought it was pretty silly to compare this product to bricks on it's cost/strength/waste. People aren't choosing brick for these factors anyway. People choose brick mainly for the aesthetic.
Even brick masonry now is split-face and limited to at-grade elevations.
Speaking of reinventing, I'm still waiting on Elon Musk's eco-bricks [1] and whenever foamed metals [2] become popular.
[1] - https://interestingengineering.com/boring-companys-eco-brick...
This.
Not only that, but in concrete alone there are a myriad of concrete types and tech improvements throughout the years.
The whole article is founded in a false premise. It's as if naive salespeople were expecting no one in the construction industty would have any idea of what a brick is and how construction technology has been changing throughout the years.
Of course, there are even better alternatives, like building your home out of solar sequestered carbon solids, i.e. wood.
Example: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/615000-new-...
It probably comes down to tradition. In the old parts of any city, all of the 100 year-old houses have brick exteriors, as well as most of the houses built since then.