In fairness to the article, it is putting some flesh on the bones of an area that I have seen cause surprise. It's a variant of the observation that, although

In fairness to the article, it is putting some flesh on the bones of an area that I have seen cause surprise. It's a variant of the observation that, although in C++ you aren't paying a direct abstraction cost, you are often paying a generalisation cost. This cost is obscured by the abstraction and may not be warranted in your application. In other words, an indirect abstraction cost.