And they don't think this might be misleading or not fairly presenting the bigger picture?
No, they probably do know they are being misleading for the sake of sensationalism, but you can't catch them on this technicality because they are the ones defining what a "bitcoin startup" is for the purposes of this article.
I think NXT is actually a bit more sophisticated in terms of managing assets but whoever can create the friendliest GUI wins. Whoever can make it easiest for their assets to run parallel to the platform, as a standalone entity, will also win.
I was thinking about whether to launch my own asset and going through the pros and cons of Counterparty vs. NXT:
PROS
-Counterparty is cheaper and backed by the bitcoin blockchain
-NXT is more sophisticated and offers dividend issuance
CONS
-Trading on Counterparty is sluggish and components are nonfunctional at times
-Setup & downloading the NXT blockchain takes a long time. So does opening the wallet.