"The feather is one of the best research models you can find for understanding the basic molecular pathways used by all epithelial cells," says Chuong. "Scientists agree that whether you're looking at a human mammary gland or a chicken feather, epithelial cells use the same underlying logic, the same grammar, to form an organ. But unlike a gland, a feather really lays everything right out there for you."
What it means is that the article is full of half truths. Those three genes which are present in many other species will never produce a feather in a lizard, a dinosaur, or any other non feathered species. The article itself goes very lightly on it but it admits that there are other genes involved in producing these feathers. The purpose of the article is just as what I said, to make it seem that feather production can be achieved with just a few changes here and there to any creature. It is not so. As I said in a post above, let them do the same thing with a lizard and let them give all the details of what they had to do to make a feathered lizard. Then we can talk about how 'simple' feathers are.