I think what the article is trying to say is that almost all the torque turning the wheels is from the electric power steering, while your hands are just providing a small input that the torque sensors pick up. The fact that there is a mechanical connection doesn't really make much of a difference (except when power steering fails).

You can steer fine without power assist, it only gets hard in slow speed parking maneuvers. Source: I've done it.

Also this situation is no different than normal power steering, which assists you with a different mechanism.

Are you talking about a car without power steering, or a car with failed power steering? Because I remember being quite surprised how hard it was to steer a car rolling downhill after I turned off the engine (I thought it would be smart to conserve fuel, did not realise how unsafe that was).

It's gotten progressively harder over the decades because both steering wheels and steering ratios have gotten smaller as the reliability of power steering systems has improved. I think many people would have a very hard time controlling a modern car in the case of a power steering failure.

I am talking about a car with failed power steering. It is very hard to steer when moving slow, not so hard when moving. Presumably this could vary depending on vehicle mass and other factors but I do notice that both you and the person who replied to you with an incorrect assumption both made it, despite having to use your muscles.

Modern cars have crap suspensions/steering geometry for unassisted steering. This is a side effect of the geometry that helps keep their wide tires from making them wander all over the road. That said, it's only a marginal increase in effort. Modern cars are just fat. An Altima curbs at about the same weight as a base spec 2wd pickup that would have come with manual steering in the 80s and the Altima has a much higher steering ratio.

I think he is talking about the former. I've also had power steering fail on me and it took everything I had to get home. And I was ~2 minutes from home.

It also depends on the size of the car. I drove late 1990s Geo Metros and Ford Aspires without power steering. (I worked for a car rental agency.) It wasn't a big deal because the cars were tiny, but I think I would have struggled if the big pickup trucks had manual steering.

And the "previous generation" of power steering was hydraulic, which had a similar behaviour and setup in that it is an amplification of steering input.

Electric power steering allows for configurability of steering difficulty, which tends to engender the feeling of precision at a certain point along the effort curve. (Variable for different people, naturally).

Plus, with more powerful electric systems (better alternators, basically), moving hydraulic steering pump from belt-driven frees up the engine a bit, yielding less drag and better fuel efficiency.

But fundamentally, I believe that in modern vehicles, due to their weight, direct steering linkages are a bit rare.

Direct steering linkages are a major safety feature that isn’t going away because at high speed you need minimal steering input. My power steering died in a 3,000 lb car and I didn’t get it replaced for a few weeks because it was only noticeable at very low speeds.

Personally, I prefer electric steering because it takes so little torque input. My Mercedes cabrio was heavy and tiring to steer, but I can steer the Mirage with my fingertips. As a bonus, the steering is tuned to "tighten up" at speed, which effectively makes the car snappier without actually changing the alignment.

That paragraph is a straightforward description of power steering. It doesn’t suggest that Teslas are drive by wire. The article is not incorrect in this instance.

Then why even mention it? Power steering isn’t anything new or unique.

I'm alright with the author mentioning it because some of the steering behavior is defined in software in newer cars.

Electronic power steering has been in use since the mid 80's, the article is framing it as some new technology. And steering behavior has been software defined since the intro of electronic power steering with electronic stability control(introed in 1983), etc...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_stability_control