Even for seemingly obvious things this article is wrong. Maybe in 2009, when the market was playing ball, was it okay not to buy your own brand (eBay) as a key

Even for seemingly obvious things this article is wrong. Maybe in 2009, when the market was playing ball, was it okay not to buy your own brand (eBay) as a keyword, as this is an audience that already want to go to your site. Now all your competitors are buying your brand and you'll end up in fourth or fifth position with your own audience if you don't buy it. And while most will still scroll it through, you will end up losing a small but consistent share of clicks to competitors time to time. And if they manage to make their service slightly more sticky than yours, you'll end up losing small market shares over time.