Exactly why I prefer to start with feature sparse apps like TextEdit. Even for the small volume of writing I do I find it much easier to focus on the substance before worrying too much about the exact layout or formatting of the document. This usually includes multiple TextEdit windows. In the final stages I will use Pages or Word to play with the final structure and formatting. I would imagine for a larger document this workflow would work well also. It almost requires multiple monitors or enough screen space in general to display a few windows at once side-by-side. I think the author of this article is probably looking for something like Scrivener on the Mac which I've never tried but lots of people seem to adore it.