I do agree with you here, trying to consume and digest everything that comes out in one's field of interrest is not only pretty hard but also extensively time consuming.
I guess the point of the article is more to, induce people into considering more academic papers when they do research -- that is, either for their own non-academic or academic research.
I always find it interesting to read those, when they're closely related to what I'm trying to do or what I am currently doing / researching.
And as far, as trying to catch-up with a whole field of interest, often enough, there are books -- written by the same researchers that wrote the papers you missed -- that presents you the latest advancement in the field over the past years ; all the while presenting you the way of thought that accompanies these discoveries... A good example of that would be "Burst" by A.-L. Barabási, a personal favorite :)
I guess the point of the article is more to, induce people into considering more academic papers when they do research -- that is, either for their own non-academic or academic research.
I always find it interesting to read those, when they're closely related to what I'm trying to do or what I am currently doing / researching.
And as far, as trying to catch-up with a whole field of interest, often enough, there are books -- written by the same researchers that wrote the papers you missed -- that presents you the latest advancement in the field over the past years ; all the while presenting you the way of thought that accompanies these discoveries... A good example of that would be "Burst" by A.-L. Barabási, a personal favorite :)