Incredible at some things maybe, but for the average user Gemini is what broke Google Assistant (the article touches on that). Most people use Google Assistant to "do things" like play music, interact with smart switches, etc. Rolling out Gemini as a replacement before it could do these things was always going to be viewed as a regression.
People don't care if it can answer questions with more nuance when the smart stuff they paid hundreds or thousands for no longer works.
I use Assistant to add reminders or stuff to my calendar (saying "Add appointment for 22nd of December at 2pm take sleigh out of garage" is a lot faster than clicking around the calendar UI), a few months ago Gemini couldn't do these things, yesterday it offers to do so after I connect it to the Workspace apps (I'm using civilian Google). But asking it to list my reminders gives me a textual listing in its UI instead of loading the Tasks UI...
Getting a response to "Set alarm for 8am" is still a lot quicker in Assistant than in Gemini.
The weird thing is that other AI systems can route commands to different models. Google should be able to send questions to Gemini and commands to Google Assistant.
I used Google Assistant to call my wife whem I was driving.
Previously it just called her, Gemini asks which one of the numbers I have saved should it call, but not as a continued conversation. It comes up with an onscreen list, which I'm not pressing whilst driving, and trying to tell it which one ends with Gemini getting very confused.
Reverted to Google Assistant which still works and will actually call her.
People don't care if it can answer questions with more nuance when the smart stuff they paid hundreds or thousands for no longer works.