Re: That headline: Fewer... (please?)
"Less" is for non-count nouns.
Less has always been used with both type of nouns. The idea that it's restricted to non count terms is a "zombie rule".
Look at it this way. Mathematically integers are a special class of numbers so it's not surprising they get their own version of the inequality operator (in common speech, at least). But quantities are numbers, not numbers other than integers, so any operator that applies to them applies to integers as well.
BTW, I'm with mdubash here. "Less than half" qualifies "targets", which is a count noun, so "fewer" is appropriate here.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
