Interesting article - its worth pointing out that UEFI really is a huge step up from the old fashioned BIOS - for one it brings mouse support to the BIOS menu!
the main things UEFI bring apart from the signed bootloading - which in my opinion is a good feature as long as MS get off there behind and sign the linux key or implement a solution that allows Linux installs an easier method of entry with UEFI enabled
the other bonuses of UEFI is much better hardware support - previously BIOS' literally were so dumb they basically only supported keyboards, storage detection and basic screen resolution (which loads so 80's on a huge 24" monitor), Now UEFI has full input device support, much higher resolutions, better hardware support (you can now boot off larger than 2TB hard drives) UEFI has networking support before the boot environment (so you dont strictly need cards with PXE support for network booting), faster bootup and its modular meaning that it can be extended (hence the E in UEFI) which means it will support hardware in years to come
I'm honestly surprised BIOS has worked for so long considering its limitations, and i do agree with you that if i pay for the hardware i can do what i like with it right? even if that were to install pirate OS' - which i dont do anymore because 9 times out of 10 they cause more problems than i have time to deal with anyway