...Like paying the church for the forgiveness/absolution of sins, and so forth.
These practices certainly weren't part of the first and second Century church and had no basis in Scripture.
The Reformers took the Church back to the biblical model...not away from biblical Christianity (as these mentioned in the article are doing).
Admittedly there were abuses and wrong practices.
But the Church is, and remains, the instrument of Jesus the Christ. If you examine the authority that the Church has been granted, it, and not Luther, nor Calvin, nor Zwingli, nor their descendents have any authority whatsoever to pronounce, advance, or otherwise counsel anything related to the theology of Christianity.