[kevin1894]

I think to non-scientists, or at least people who don't work with log scales, the use of linear scales makes the graph easier to understand. While I wouldn't expect to see this in Nature, this article reads like it is intended for a general audience.

[lonelappde]

Easier to misunderstand, yes. If the motivation is to simplify, they should plot 2 graphs, with a second graph being log plot or a zoom on the low scale part to show its not linear