Just a word of writing advice, if you link content inside the text it should be first or last word, never in the middle. It just takes a lot of effort to know what the link in the middle of the text is about.
ps. no need to downvote, its just an advice :)
The author that wrote that article was obviously an expert in UI/UX and has spent a great deal thinking/doing articles.
An example that you've mentioned, Wikipedia, it doesn't have such huge contrast between link and text, and I'm expecting it to be full of links.I suppose thats the reason why but I don't do the described behaviour on it. However I often find myself doing the described behaviour when reading blogs, making me ignore/stop reading the blogs that do a lot of linking.
Could you, as an example, rewrite the first paragraph of the fine article, so that the 3 links are either at the start or end of the paragraph (as suggested), in a way that makes the contents of the paragraph and/or the link context clearer?
Looks like you're misunderstanding. There is a need to downvote because you're projecting your opinion (that some people strongly disagree with) as "advice", as if it's a fact. It's correct to downvote imho, which is what I did.
Similar to Wikipedia, it's ok, if not preferable, to link words in the middle of a sentence. I prefer it, some people I know prefer it. It's ok to give advice, but when the jury is still out, it's crucial to be humble.
How does specifically linking the first or last word (of ...the sentence? paragraph?) make things any clearer?
Wouldn't it be best to just link the words that most describe what the linked-to page is about (maybe even the linked-to page title?), no matter where they appear?