I came here to say that too. Back then ORM:s were clunky because the languages (Java) and techniques we were using were clunky. For example, the article talks

I came here to say that too. Back then ORM:s were clunky because the languages (Java) and techniques we were using were clunky. For example, the article talks about object identity and equality. Nowadays, you would try and design your data so that object identity doesn't matter because that works better with the functional paradigm. He also discusses how to map inheritance to database tables, but that is a moot point -- people don't use inheritance to model data anymore. The old "an Employee class is an instance of a Person class and has a reference to a Manager class which is also a Person-instance" thinking isn't used anymore.