The article talked about representing 3 states, and you suggested encoding those 3 states in a way that has the same split-brain issue that the article discusse

The article talked about representing 3 states, and you suggested encoding those 3 states in a way that has the same split-brain issue that the article discussed. You can tell that 4 states doesn't match up with the article based on how the loading state is rendered - the pictures are ignored in those examples. Now sure, if you decide you really do need 4 states, then that's a different story and your suggestion works just fine. But that's not a solution to the article's problem.