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But it is both 18mm and 6mm narrower, so it goes from 1.414 to 1.29 in terms of ratio.

In other words A4 seems 10% narrower in terms of shape, which isn't insignificant.

Having said that, I'd rather keep A4 given the useful properties described in the article.

I grew up with the A sizes of paper and agree with the parent comment. When I moved to the US I was pleasantly surprised by the size/shape of US Letter sized paper.

That's a 9.5% difference in the aspect ratio. I don't think that's small.

For what it's worth: I am a European, still living in Europe and surrounded by A4 and I envy American's US Letter format.

I almost always have the feeling that A4 is too big.

It's just that you can resize everything while still keeping the same portions with the A* paper while with the US formats you just have to redesign everything.