I think non-GAAP adjustments were mostly used in the article as a rough marker of "crookedness" that you can measure. Because by far, worldwide, the primary means of fraud involves revenue recognition and other accounting shenanigans (very much recommend the book by the same name) that both IFRS and GAAP are vulnerable to. It's just that's much harder to find that stuff out. But, when the SEC notices a problem with your revenue recognition policies affecting your revenue by a few percent, the SEC comes down on you hard. KHC was an example of that last year or maybe 2 years ago with the new rules in ASC606.

It was news to me that IFRS cracked down on non-GAAP adjustments, particularly because I follow some foreign filers in the US and haven't noticed much of a difference. But then again, I don't follow a lot of companies with the type of management that harps on EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA anyway. According to Charlie Munger, "I think you would understand any presentation using the word EBITDA, if every time you saw that word you just substituted the phrase, “bullshit earnings.”