The article didn't read that way to me. The GC is a fallback mechanism to catch any refcounting loops, but the reference counting is still in force, so non-loo

The article didn't read that way to me. The GC is a fallback mechanism to catch any refcounting loops, but the reference counting is still in force, so non-looped objects still do get collected. When the GC runs, everything gets touched. Without it, the refcounting still hits some shared objects, but this is reduced enough to be worth it, and the heap doesn't grow without bounds.