Did you read the article? It's not celebrating that he found pedaling less important than balancing, it's telling how he came up with a method to explicitly teach balancing by steering constantly and therefore making the wobble-lean-steer-tilt relationship stand out and be the bit to focus attention on.

( Also, have a 'trying to be cool' sticker for your jaded cynicism: http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html )