As someone who has work extensively with both mesh and voxel engines I can say each has its good points. If you want to go for maximum visual acuity. Go the mesh route, there are great tools for generating mesh content, the shaders are well understood. Now if you want to go for maximum interactivity, emergent behavior, and simplicity, the voxel route is by far the hands down winner. The author of the original article only had a superficial understanding of voxel engines and optimization techniques.