From the article:
Let me save you some time. If you’ve been lurking the mesh forums lately you already know there are two camps and they don’t like each other much. Post “thinking about trying MeshCore” anywhere Meshtastic people hang out and you get a mix of “why bother, it’s not even mature” and a few quiet replies saying “do it, you won’t go back.” Both reactions are right, which is exactly why most comparisons out there are useless to you.
Most of them slap together a table, crown a winner, and call it a day. That’s not how this works once you’ve actually got the hardware on your bench.
How is MeshCore setup “Steep, under-documented, decision-heavy”? It’s the exact same Flash => Select region => Go as with Meshtastic.
Yeah, I found that bit to be odd too.