I do not really know if one can credit this article with much accuracy. While true that security etc. do not produce profit, whereas activities that do produce profit do little in the way of pleasing customers, there seem plenty of airports that are able to do both (focus on retail while sufficiently meeting basic passenger needs).

The only example I can think of off the top my head is AMS Schiphol: a privately-run airport (although the infrastructure is owned by the central government) that does a fairly decent job of providing necessary infrastructure, decent security, clean facilities and so forth, while turning a handsome profit in retail and other activities that generate the profit shareholders (in this case, the state, city of Amsterdam and Rotterdam) demand.

What is so different about Heathrow???