Your article was written to push these systems. That's why they only interviewed reps for the manufacturers that sell them.You can believe what you like but in real world cycling the people I train and race with have found electronic shifting to be more reliable, more robust, and easier to maintain than mechanical shifting. The latest generation of electronic simply holds up better under hard use in all conditions. Yes, there's an extra battery and motor but overall there's less stuff to break and the parts are under lower stress. The "Reliability and Maintenance" section of this article seems to be pretty spot on.
(Sorry for the off-topic comment. I don't have an opinion on the Avelo system and haven't tried it, just pointing out that mechanical versus electronic bike shifting isn't a meaningful analogy.)
Here's a more in-depth and balanced article: Mechanical vs Electronic Groupsets: A Cyclist's Guide | ROUVY