The example screen-captures in the article appear to be of something subtly different: involuntary promotion of new features or recent changes. There is probably a more established term for this UX tactic, but I know it as a "guided demo." These guided demos are often employed when orienting a new user with key elements of the application's user interface.
Some distinctions:
1. Tooltips are in response to voluntary exploration by the user. Guided demos are usually involuntary.
2. Tooltips are available at will and infinitely repeatable; they always appear when the user is "inspecting" an element. Guided demos usually are once-and-done (and are notoriously difficult for users to revisit later if they elected to skip them).
3. Because tooltips are voluntary, they occur at the user's area of attention. Guided demos are typically attempting to draw user attention to somewhere it's not already. Hence, guided demos are often coupled with some form of obfuscation of other UI elements (e.g., a dimming mask layer over the rest of the UI).
4. Tooltips are immediate both in and out—they appear on hover and disappear on exit. A tell-tale of guided demos is that the pop-ups usually include some form of dismiss button ("OK" button or close button), because they are involuntary and therefore need to confirm they've successfully captured user attention.
5. Tooltips are individual and paced by the user's interest. Guided demos are commonly linked into a "wizard-like" sequence (e.g., let's walk you through the three most important elements of this UI.)
If it's not clear from the above, I feel traditional tooltips are generally good because they reward exploration while remaining entirely voluntary. Meanwhile, guided demos are a mixed bag: sometimes a necessary evil to clear an especially difficult UI hurdle, but easily used to excess and disruptive to users.