In old days people used #ifdef to compile things out so that the "production code" doesn't have any unnecessary branches. I was shocked when I first saw these living if()s in the server-side C++ code but then realized it was vital for debugging in production.

People also used to prefer table based jump over long if-else-if chain for anecdotal performance reasons. That has gradually changed over the evolution of CPUs with various optimizations like the branch prediction. Now some JIT impls like tracing JIT replace virtual function calls with if-elses.

By the way, I'm glad that the article is so thoughtfully written that it doesn't include any ambiguous "best practices" at the end. It could have created yet another myth. The three top tips in the article is more about stating facts. I admire the author taking that stance.