I think they did a decent job. They report on compatibility for those that want it, but demonstrate it can be a Google-free experience. The fact that they also recognize they tested on an older device vs glossing over that was appreciated, too. Any journalist willing to install Ubuntu on their phone is probably going to be a bit more reliable to begin with, too.
Hah, yup, that’s me, too. Sorry it didn’t work out, a team have done some updates to it that may work now, unfortunately I’ve never been able to get a hold of them.