Although Reddit currently faces a negative news cycle, I suspect they will easily overcome it by simply ignoring the uproar. Of course, there will be a percentage of users that feel that this is truly the last straw, but unfortunately, that pales in comparison to the enormous number of visitors for whom it doesn't matter enough.
As mentioned by others, the recommended list of extensions in the article is a bit outdated. These days not much more than uBlock Origin is needed for a good configuration, with the addition of maybe CanvasBlocker.
Also, see Jake Wharton's Docker GPhotos Sync [0] for a containerized version of this tool. Unfortunately, this method seems to be the easiest way to automate a backup at full quality.