Maybe he took a signing bonus and a relocation package and will have financial troubles if he quits too early? Maybe not, but I would see that as a decent reason to stay a bit longer.
Because it takes 5-7 months to realize how much you have screwed up. And by that point you want to stay a year so you don't look like a flake. If you are astute or experienced (or read these articles and realize they are painful truth) then you can bail within the first couple weeks and not even put it on your resume.
Maybe people in that situation can now point to the NYT article to explain why they "flaked" after only a few months and it won't affect their chances of being hired elsewhere.
That sounds nice, but it's not really how it works in the real world. Any recruiters looking at his or her resume won't bother to ask the candidate why they stayed at their job for less than a year, they'll just move on to the next candidate.