Countering one of your points, and yet bolstering your statement here. Even in a DevOps environment, packaging is important. Same as a system image or random artifact, a distribution package can provide consistency and repeatability.

If I had to wait for a rebuild of the entire operating system to test deployment of a single application, how much confidence could I possibly gain in that application's deployment process?

Also... it seems the author is suggesting that newer software always has fewer bugs. Hmm... .