Do _not_ assume this will always work. If you bind to the tap events and change content positions you _will_ end up firing the click on an unintended element. Remember the click almost always trails the tap (save for on the Windows Phone platform). He mentions that jQuery Mobile does some "magic" to deal with the click and tap. This is the vmouse module and you can use this independent of the library for just this purpose.
"JQuery is enormous and has no business being on a phone"
It's a phonegap application, the assets can be packaged with the application itself which means that in many cases this doesn't apply.
"Massive Footprint. 248k wowsers"
I'm still confused why this matters if you are packaging your assets with the phonegap build which I would expect most people do.
He's very right. Phonegap is no trumpcard, but I'd appreciate a more thorough treatment of the "best practices" he espouses.