My experience shows the opposite.
ON your remark that flash drives show up as read write errors, I would have to disagree. In my experiance, when flash drives fail, it is exactly as the article implies. Yes I may get a read or write error, but that is it, the data is useless, gone, irretrievable.. all of it. I have seen this every time with a failing flash drive. No warning, kaput, the end.
A Hard Drive on the other hand, usually give me warnings, that if I listen to I can see. Somtimes errors, sometimes noise, sometimes excessive heats. Other times old fashioned Boot Failure. Then I can prepare the drive, retrieve data, and await it's destruction. Even when a drive suddenly dies, data is sometimes still retrievable.
To say that the article "so misleading as to be completely wrong" is a little harsh. Although you may not have had the problems he metioned, I for one have seen exactly that, and believe it to be the general truth due to the numerous times it has happened.
