Agreed. There may be cases where a hamburger menu makes sense, like a news app where you can switch between sections. The article shows a solution with the search bar moved to a more prevalent position and other menu options dropped to the bottom - this makes sense if users reach destination pages in the app via search. It's good to think about but I think the article missed the point of starting with the objectives first (customer's needs) and working backwards to find which menu layout is best.