Alternative medicine is a 34 billion dollar industry in the US alone
The crucial difference between the pharmaceutical industry and the alternative health sector is centralisation vs fragmentation.
Due to being vast, centralised entities, pharmaceutical companies can utilise mass marketing, lobbying and the perception of scientific validity and government endorsement to get their products into the hands of customers, and can continue to do so even if their products cause widespread harm [1]).
But every natural/holistic practitioner is an independent operator servicing a small local area, and must work hard to provide a high degree of satisfaction to every customer every day, and face the reality that a single instance of serious harm will put them out of business for good.
The article you cited demonstrating the size of the industry only confirms that for the most part, practitioners are doing a pretty good job.
I'm not arguing that mainstream medicine and pharma shouldn't exist, or should even be dramatically changed. I happily use it, and find it very beneficial. But I also know from personal experience and simple market economics, that the oft-touted-here attitude, that most/all natural/holistic/alternative medicine is useless/harmful snake-oil peddled by charlatans to morons, is misinformed and mostly false.
[1] http://www.livescience.com/57268-fentanyl-overdose-deaths-do...
http://www.statisticbrain.com/health-care-industry-statistic...
One reason is to do with scale, and perceived credibility.
A pharmaceutical company is a vast organisation, which is able to invest huge sums of money on advertising, marketing, lobbying, PR, insurance etc, and they have the benefit of being seen as having scientific rigour and government-administered quality assurance as inherent features of their offering.
This all means their products can be sold to many millions of people who trust the recommendation of their physician, even if it offers minimal benefit (e.g., antidepressants or statins prescribed to people who would benefit far more from lifestyle changes) or causes significant harm (see current spike in addictions and fatalities linked to opioid painkillers like Fentanyl).
A natural/holistic health practitioner is a normally an independent small business operator, offering treatment to about 20-30 people per week, most of whom are generally healthy and just want to stay that way by having good nutrition, reduced stress, better muscular-skeletal alignment, etc.
Most natural/holistic practitioners make a comparable income to a contract software developer, and have no intention or ability (or more importantly, stock market pressure) to make any more than that. They rely heavily on repeat business and word-of-mouth recommendations, and therefore must consistently help their clients achieve an improved quality of life.
When people die whilst under conventional medical/pharmaceutical treatment, the general attitude is "that's sad, but hey it was a scientifically validated treatment, so, what else could we do?"
Whereas any natural/holistic practitioner who causes serious harm or death of a patient is subjected to thorough scrutiny by regulators and the media, and indignant sharing on social media. Those found to be negligent are quickly put out of business.