Are you familiar with 8-inch floppy disks?
Intimately.
Now I know for a fact that your article's claim to 1-year thumb-drive data retention is inaccurate, as I've personally had thumb drive data last much longer than 1 year.
And I once had to toss a printer that was perfectly fine, except that its firmware had leaked off its flash.
that thumb-drive data can last for 10 years or more.
Emphasis added.
And that “can” word applies to all data storage media in the world, of course, (and always will in the future too, with all future technological advances).