One quantitative difference is that tasks assigned to the E cores may run at a sustained frequency much lower than the maximum (3.7x here) while on Intel any sustained load generally results in frequency scaling up over a few 100 ms to a maximum value which is much closer to the absolute max.
You’re right that everyone has been doing this for quite a while, it’s certainly not an Apple invention.
The Electric Light Company often covers Mac stuff and Activity Monitor is the tool you use to view this stuff in OS X, so it’s just the domain this article is focusing on.
"Unlike traditional Intel CPUs, CPU cores in Apple silicon chips can be run at a wide range of frequencies, as set by macOS."
The use of the word 'traditional' here is essentially gaslighting.
Like I said, I think it’s referring to much older generations.
It just seems like awkward phrasing.