I suspect this article is what they say they do as opposed to what they actually do.
They may even say these things internally as part of the "official" plan, but as you point out, there's reason to be skeptical it's how they actually operate in practice.
You can hire on these things once in the interview process, and I think most companies probably like to think they do the same thing. But they aren't interviewing everyone we can assume. So how do you pick people for interviews? This is where all the GPA and good schools stuff comes in usually, or something unique about the candidate. Perhaps certain experience that serves as an indicator that the person will have the required attributes.
I'd have been more interested in hearing how they select for interviews and not how they hire. If someone from an average school with a below average GPA, he/she could impress and get hired on these attributes (which the candidate certainly can possess), but the real trick for these candidate types is getting in the door.
They may even say these things internally as part of the "official" plan, but as you point out, there's reason to be skeptical it's how they actually operate in practice.