The post is pretty relevant even today - I'm seeing more popups and slideouts and other s^&t now than ever :-).

However, it's a fact that they lead to more conversions, more signups and more sales.

It's pretty useless to complain about them - if the publisher's goal is to drive sales using content that will never be seen, that's their prerogative. If the readers don't like the popups, they can just say TC;DR and leave the site forever. Or use ad blockers (which publishers hate, for obvious reasons).

In the long run, analytics will show that drop in view numbers.