I am currently using FreeBSD as my main OS, even on a recent (2010) laptop. It works great, for me. I have great control what is going on on my computer and I love the combination of a stable (as in "API/ABI stable" _and_ as in "upgrades do not break basic functionality") base system and very recent applications from ports.
Anyhow, I still have to agree with you that for most people, it is just not worse the time. For anyone else, I usually install Ubuntu. Ports are very powerful, but just not suitable for everyone.
If there were just stable ports (ports that come with a release and get only security fixes until the next release), one might come to the conclusion as the original article, but currently, you can either use release ports and live with the security holes (not a good idea to have an outdated browser and Flash plugin on the desktop), or you upgrade all ports very frequently.
PC-BSD might be a different story, I have not tried it in some time. Even though it brought me to FreeBSD, there were some good reasons not to use it anymore: How can you suggest users to use FreeBSD ports, if there is no PC-BSD PBI, and then wipe them at an upgrade? Probably not an issue anymore, but for me, that stuck.