I'm the author of the article. I've tried that -- the downside is that the data structures (nodes in particular) take more space, and have more costs to manage

I'm the author of the article. I've tried that -- the downside is that the data structures (nodes in particular) take more space, and have more costs to manage / reorganize. Using a linked list with move-to-front-on-access works better in all experiments I've tried.