Many natural locations near me are not pleasant for humans. Too many bugs (including ticks) and the underbrush is impassable.
The areas that are more pleasant might be hard to replicate in a small space. You can't create a forest microclimate in a 1/4 acre yard.
In fact, an isolated 1/4 acre yard is an unnatural habitat in a lot of ways. The easiest thing to manage there other than a lawn is usually a crop of 8ft high weeds.
It takes some work upfront to convert a lawn to a miniforest but it can be done.
Just imagine how wonderful suburbia could be if this was the norm and not the exception.
Edit: here's that same yard in early spring, where the fact that it's a normal suburban yard is more visible: https://youtu.be/CdthuPbn2uo . It's incredible how lush it is in the summer, you'd think it was miles away from civilization.
That is a good number of trees in a backyard. But it's hardly a microclimate. I imagine that I get more cooling from the (considerably larger) trees in my backyard. And it's nothing like the several degrees of cooling you get in a forest.
Further, I don't see what those trees have to do with the article's advice about native plants.
Surburbia might well be wonderful if that sort of backyard were the norm -- if we ditched the whole 19th and 20th century flight from urban agriculture -- I wouldn't mind being able to have a pig or a goat in the backyard, myself. But this article doesn't seem to have anything to do with that topic.
No one here is advocating untamed wilderness over a green sheet of lawn. You don't have to replicate impenetrable underbrush in your backyard. You could however focus on natural species and a broader variety
The article is not recommending people don't mow the lawn. It's not even saying to get rid of grass. Just to plant native plants, minimize herbicides/fertilizers and watering.
The areas that are more pleasant might be hard to replicate in a small space. You can't create a forest microclimate in a 1/4 acre yard.
In fact, an isolated 1/4 acre yard is an unnatural habitat in a lot of ways. The easiest thing to manage there other than a lawn is usually a crop of 8ft high weeds.