If big sites do it, it must be okay!
If I can't be bothered to do proper research to learn why one should not use technique X, the reasons must be trivial and stupid!
If I am too lazy to learn how to do something properly, I must justify doing it improperly somehow!
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I haven't used tables for page layout in roughly a decade. I think I used a table improperly for the first time since then last week, when I was laying out a form and couldn't get it to render consistently after a Javascript update. I don't consider this the end of the world, nor do I take it to mean that CSS is unnecessary and I'm going to go back to pretending it's 1999.
The problem with sensationalist bullshit like this article is people will read it and form an opinion based on it, without doing their own research. Do your own research (and looking at the table counts of Alexa Top 100 sites doesn't fucking count as research, FYI). Learn the real reasons why you shouldn't use tables for layout (or why to adhere to various other web standards). If you don't find those reasons compelling enough to switch, then do whatever the hell you want -- at least you know why you're doing it.
Learn that if you choose to use the proper methods, all the layouts have already been made for you, so you can be as incompetent as you'd like and still layout a page better than Google (and yes, Google are complete shit bags when it comes to adhering to Web Standards. Thankfully, what Google does should be irrelevant to you!) Finally, at the end of the day, just because you use tables occasionally doesn't magically mean CSS IS DEAD. I can't think of a sufficiently funny metaphor for this obvious fact because I am too god damn pissed off.