I'm willing to bet the author is either A) not a touch typist or B) Comes from Windows/Linux. It's not the author's fault, of course, but it has been around since 1984 and it's unlikely to change. The 'native' way to type commands on a Mac is using your thumb to press Command and your pinky to press Q, or your ring finger to press W.
It feels awfully weird pressing Q with your ring finger.
Window/Linux users use the pinky to press ctrl, taking your hand out of the usual touch typing position, and thus making it more prone to mistakes.
I agree with your premise but not your conclusion. I'm a touch-typist - but many touch typists in the computer age end up not always using classical touch typing methods - after all,the traditional typewriter keyboard didn't have an alt or cmd or ctrl key, right?
I use the thumb on left-cmd and a ring finger on either q or w (never thought about it... maybe I use the pinky sometimes) - and I don't recall ever making a mistake, although I suspect that may partially be because I primarily use safari, and it warns me if I try to close multiple tabs or a single tab/window with form data filled out.
And everyone should hopefully be mapping capslock to ctrl.... that just saves all kinds of hassle down the road.
It feels awfully weird pressing Q with your ring finger.
Window/Linux users use the pinky to press ctrl, taking your hand out of the usual touch typing position, and thus making it more prone to mistakes.