the overspending induced by a credit card will, except in tandem with the most un-fun, disciplined rules, outweigh its perks.
That's a big exception that I find ridiculous to consider and implicitly dismiss in an article with a subheading/conclusion of:
It's well documented that people paying with plastic are willing to spend more than when paying with cash—a phenomenon everyone fancies themselves immune to.
A lot of the study results seem fair, but the conclusions drawn from them are terrible.
I'll admit with a card that offers incentives for more spend on things that I value I'll spend more, but it's nothing unique to credit cards, if the same value was offered in another form I'd make the same decision without a credit card.