i think you're making the author's point for him. it's an inferior machine in every way except for an inch of screen size. People are willing to pay extra for a marginally smaller computer, and apple is happy for that.
again, that's the whole point of the article - the MacBook/air/pro lineup is all about upsells, and they've managed to convert "smaller" into one of those upsells, where the 11" air used to be the cheapest model.