Informed about what exactly? The TL;DR: of the article is "open house plans are bad because smells and noise travels throughout the floor" plus a whole lot of history and fluff.
If the article was about the history of floor plans and the origin of the open floor plan, sure that's a chance to be informed. But it nominally wasn't.
Yea I was disappointed when I saw it was talking about houses. I've seen a lot of cookie-cutter houses have very open plans just to give the illusion of having more space. I actually like them (if they're setup like a tri-level). Open plan offices are garbage. You have totally different goals/requirements for each.
As stated in other comments, the part of an open-plan house that has rooms has the rooms where privacy and quiet are valuable. The part that is not divided is the social space. When engineers say they like open offices, I assume they prefer to be able to socialize (consult) with their nearby peers more than they prefer to have quiet. Those who prefer private offices prefer quiet and no interruptions. So all of this is consistent between homes and offices.
