I don't really see the useful insights that the article tries to provide. Yes, if the user wants to register and you send the confirmation email now instead of

I don't really see the useful insights that the article tries to provide. Yes, if the user wants to register and you send the confirmation email now instead of 8 hours later it will be better. Yes, having more stepts to sign-up results in lower conversion rates, as each new step is a new chance for the user to drop. Keep in mind that you also have to convert relevant users otherwise you would just end up with a bunch of inactive accounts, which is not good, at least not if your goal is more than collecting emails.