Interesting piece! I think the article makes some good points, but I don't think that helium is the reason that airships have failed to find use cases. The benefits of hydrogen do not change the fundamentals of the business case. Hydrogen's cheaper, but even using helium the lifting gas is <20% of the operating cost of the airship. The hangar, cost of the vehicle, and maintenance are all more impactful than the cost of the lifting gas.

The bigger hurdle that airship startups have faced is the upfront cost of developing a new vehicle with a many ton payload. Projects trying to build very large airships have so far to get a vehicle to market, because of the amount of capital it requires and the lack of a strong, specific commercial case (Hybrid Air Vehicles, Cargolifter, Lockheed's Hybrid Airships). Changing the lifting gas to hydrogen does not address those challenges. But airships are certainly underutilized - I'm optimistic for their future!