That's been happening for ages - even on my personal profile I have the option to pay to "highlight" one of my posts (dunno why anyone would bother, but I guess there's a few people that want to make sure most of their online friends see what they instagrammed for dinner :^O ).
My main point was the first article didn't give those statistics any perspective, so it's a bit pointless putting up an entire article saying Facebook is useless on the basis of those statistics.
There are ways you can make sure more peeople see your posts without paying for the privilege, but the other thing you have to remember is that Facebook is not a search engine - it just doesn't work the same way as google, giving you a list of search results to choose from, and therefore the focus of the article (direct click percentage / traffic generation) is actually misunderstanding the point of Facebook in the first place, and because the page is interactive, there are so many ways a social network presence can help a business other than a simple click / buy.
A business that regards Facebook as purely a traffic driving exercise doesn't actually understand the tool they are trying to use. It's like the reception, PR, damage control, customer service centre, feedback and complaints departement all rolled into one thing and in from an advertising perspective, a page actually works a bit more like a TV ad than a google ad.
I post my work on one site that's social network-oriented (not FB) and recently had someone find my gallery and ask me if I make a certain type of item. My response was pretty much 'I do now!'. It was something that never would have occurred to me otherwise, but that item, in a matter of a couple of weeks, became my fastest, best selling product. One random comment from a stranger in America, no direct traffic generated, but a great result in terms of a new line and sales.
