> I mean, you can buy decent multi-port high-wattage USB charger warts for fairly cheap
I agree to a degree - and with the fact that you can buy a charger separately, if you so desire. And I fully agree on the environmental impact; I don't think I've even taken the charger out of the box for my last few handsets, since I've got wireless Qi chargers sat next to my bed and work desk.
On the other hand...
We're seeing an ongoing evolution in battery technology - both in terms of capacity and charging. E.g. as the article points out, Apple is moving to offer 20W chargers, which probably have more processing power than a Commodore Amiga packed into them, to monitor and optimise the charging flows.
Meanwhile, most generic chargers top out at 11W, and are unlikely to have all the fancy optimisation tricks.
Put simply, there's going to be a lot of people who'll find their big, powerful phones to be always on the edge of running out of juice, since they can't keep them topped up when using generic chargers.
Personally, I think the environmental win is still more important, and anyone with technical nous will be able to sort themselves out.
But I can see a lot of disgruntlement around this, and a lot of next-generation phones getting a bad reputation for poor battery life!