I don't know, I can't say I agree with the article. I grew up (and still live) in a small apartment in Greece. My family had fans (because air-conditioning was expensive back in the day) all around the house. We "managed", but it was definitely not comfortable when ambient temperature increased above 32C. After installing air-conditioning (3 12000 BTU ductless mini-splits) everything changed. Summers were finally comfortable afterwards and today I would never think of decommissioning the A/C units, regardless of electricity costs.
The article makes the point that A/C in conjunction with fans can reduce the amount of energy needed to reach the same comfort levels. You don't need to remove the A/C if you install fans, but you can set the A/C thermostat to a higher temperature (which saves on electricity use and cost) and turn on a fan to get the same comfort level.
