Not necessarily disagreeing with the post’s thesis, but if we remove the overlay click behavior and keep the close button, doesn’t this resolve the whole “accidental background row click” issue?
Losing the input by accidentally clicking a single button on the page is fine - you’re just as likely do the same thing on a separate page.
I largely agree with the article but that example wasn't a great one.
I don't remember the last time I've seen a modal where it was possible to have an "accidental background row click". Industry standard has been: modals have a modal on top and a full screen modal overlay between the modal and the content (usually darkening the content). Click events are handled by the overlay and do not make it through to the content underneath, and the only thing the overlay does onClick is close out the modal. It's so common I don't know any user who would expect different behavior. If they've used a modal before they would expect clicking on the overlay would close it out without saving the data. Modals are pretty big, I don't think an accident like that would be common.
Losing the input by accidentally clicking a single button on the page is fine - you’re just as likely do the same thing on a separate page.