I disagree with the premise of this article, because lossless is *by definition* the "ultimate upgrade" that can be given to any particular audio file: an audio file either includes all of the source material (lossless) or some material is thrown away for compression purposes (lossy, which includes MP3s and AACs). The fact that a high-quality compressed file may be "virtually indistinguishable" from a lossless file is beside the point: lossless files are a guarantee that you are hearing the best file possible.
A more useful point would be this: Lossless isn't for everyone, and in terms of sound quality, it's a small upgrade rather than a big one. That doesn't mean it isn't "ultimate"; it simply means that: (1) most people cannot perceive minor differences in audio quality and/or do not have the proper equipment and listening environment to do so, and (2) improvements in audio are subject to diminishing returns. With a decent pair of headphones, including the AirPods Max, audio quality is already very high, so the improvement from using lossless files is relatively minor for most purposes.
That said, many of us begged for lossless audio because it is actually a huge deal to start from an audio file that did not discard sound information for compression purposes. And the sound quality is indeed better with lossless, even if most people don't hear the difference. Importantly, most people *can* hear at least some differences with training. Here's a common example: listen to the decay of a note played by a clarinet, or the decay of cymbals (especially if you can find an example where the decay happens over seconds). When material like that is isolated and the equipment/environment is right, the difference is audible. And plenty of people have unusually good hearing or are unusually critical listeners, for various reasons.
It would be better if the author of this piece had started from the premise that something does not have to be useful to everyone -- or even most people -- to be extremely valuable to some of us. There is plenty of mumbo-jumbo in the "audiophile" world, but lossless vs. lossy isn't that. Trying to wordsmith Apple's press releases for a "gotcha" inconsistency isn't particularly helpful, especially since both of the quoted passages happen to be correct. MacRumors' explainers are typically excellent, but this one was . . . lossy.