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I think the point the article is trying to make there is about the power of defaults. Sure, you can disable the grammar and spellcheck (I do that too), or you can configure it to specifically UK English and otherwise adjust it, but most users will not, and so on aggregate the choice of default setting will exert some pressure on the user base.

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Tbh I find most UK spellcheck's determination to replace "-ize" (a valid spelling in British English which the Oxford English Dictionary actually prefers for most words) with "-ise" even more annoying...

That one should be a configuration option. Most British publishers (I think) use -ise, but some use -ize, and no publisher would be happy with a paragraph in which both spellings are used (unless they are in quotations in an academic text).

For a good few years, Word's English (Australian) dictionary, was practically a renamed EN_US dictionary. Because if it, I fear the number of people from that era had their spelling localization errors metastasize and crystalize. (Yes, Chrome is not far behind)

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