Although I like the article, simply comparing the outcomes in few specific surgeries might not give you the whole picture about things like recovery times. Also there is a general misconception about 'robotic' surgery which causes high expectations and making statements like 'we're still outperforming them' pointless, none of current surgical robots are autonomous and they probably won't be for a long time. Currently what they do mostly is increase precision and stability, enable remote access etc. So the last quote will stand, if you have a bad surgeon controlling a good robot it won't help much.
Great article. Love the Atlantic. But please, why change the title on HN?