Not that I know Portugal well but smaller cities have attractions in many countries. In SE Asia the big cities would have zero attractions to me—not that multi-months of living elsewhere interests me at all.
The article is about tax breaks in Portugal, the comment was that Portugal is not only Lisbon. I don't think Asian or African countries or Siberia qualify as Portugal.
If one wants to move to Portugal, then they could consider other cities than Lisbon as an alternative because the real estate market in Lisbon is quite intense.