I think this author is referring to using grids on a professional/business website. Half of what he says wouldn't apply to theverge because they're more of a magazine/article driven site. I'd argue grids are nearly perfect for those sort of sites.

He even goes on to say, "Your homepage isn't a gallery". Well, if your website is a gallery (in this case, a gallery of articles), then it doesn't apply. It's also the reason why newspapers have the same "gallery style" layout: http://i.imgur.com/4xCCE2B.jpg