The relevant quote here is, "People don't gamble on Chess."

A luck element lets players of uneven skill feel engaged. Even better is a great handicapping system like Go has, but that's notoriously hard to design.

Chess is a great game at certain skill levels and has a lot of beauty to it, but games with enough of a skill difference aren't really interesting for either player unless the better player is teaching/mentoring.

So yeah, luck has some place in letting different people (and even gamble) together.