I have only seen two Rohloffs, one is on my bike and one was on the bike of a European traveler touring in USA. A neighbor is a bike mechanic, he told me that my Rohloff is the only one he has ever seen. The magazine you cite is published in USA, so do not expect the article to change things very much here.
I do not know why but the price in USA for a Rohloff is so high, I bought my Rohloff hub over the internet from a bike shop in Germany, I saved roughly 25 percent compared to what I would have to pay if I bought from someone here. I suspect that the USA Rohloff distributor faces little competition, thus can charge much more than what one would have to pay in Europe where there is more competition.
I like my Nomad MkII with a Rohloff. But I think both IGH and derailleur systems have their advantages and disadvantages.
For touring with a derailleur, I am quite happy with the older 8 speed systems. I use a road triple (square taper Campy crank) with a 24t aftermarket granny gear (52/42/24) up front with a vintage Suntour derailleur and in back an 8 speed Sram 11/32 cassette with a vintage XT derailleur on an older XT steel axle rear hub. I have that same gearing setup on both my Long Haul Trucker and on my Thorn Sherpa. I think most people however would prefer lower gearing for the crank, but I like what I have.
I agree that a lot of the derailleur components are not as good for touring as they were earlier. I see no reason up upgrade to the 9, or 10 or 11 speed systems, are they up to 12 yet? A friend of mine tours with a 7 speed freewheel derailleur system. And I did not realize how lucky I was when I bought one of the last steel axle XT rear hubs (M760) before they went with smaller bearings and aluminum axle (M770).
I wish I could find the correct spindle for my Nomad so that I could use a cup and cone bottom bracket instead of the newer cartridge design. I have not had any trouble with the cartridge unit, but I would like to have one that I can disassemble, clean, re-grease and re-assemble myself.