Yes, I found it well-written but not all that enlightening. I recognise that it made sense for SpaceGhost/CheapSkate to build his sites out by hand in the true spirit of DIY, but that doesn’t seem too practical or advisable for most folks.
The various federated software & networks may have their weak points and inconsistencies, but far as I can tell it’s still best for volunteer site runners to work within that framework so as to remain connected to something bigger than just their little personal corner of the internet. Is it really so expensive a thing to federate? I seem to recall that some instances can host for only ~US$20, which doesn’t seem bad at all. Images are arguably best stored at other sites like Imgur, anyway.