[ssharp]

Bootstrap provides a slim set of tools for constructing a website. The power comes in it's components, mobile-readiness, and extensibility. Going from default Bootstrap to either of these two sites would still take a lot of design work. You can also see the linked article's author talking about specific design decisions they made that aren't made by default Bootstrap.

I think a more accurate critique would be to look at some of the templates on Wrap Bootstrap. A lot of them do similar things to both of these websites.