One of these cartograms is a electoral vote cartogram of the US 2008 presidential election. Unlike the above examples, it uses a continuous color spectrum from red to blue (going through purple at 50/50) to represent the popular vote - which does a much better job of conveying voter proportions than the standard color every state red or blue. On the other hand, the map is geographically coarse grained on the state level - every state is shown in one averaged color. I have yet to find one that has both continuous color spectrum and is continous (ish) in space.
Why would you choose the 538 map to pick on when it's one of the few maps of this kind that actually allows you to zoom in on each area? That's as good a solution to the problem you're referring to as cartograms are. If not better.
Maps will always have inherent demographic bias, that's just how it is. And, sure, anyone who makes maps should be always looking for good solutions to these issues. But a smug Medium article proposing the use of cartograms, as if that's a new idea, doesn't help anyone. Except perhaps you, the author, if you're looking for some kind of attention or recognition.
It was a convenient example. And I hadn't noticed the interactivity before writing the article. That said, I don't think the zoom function makes it much better.
If you think it's OK to routinely portray America as being only rural white America, and if you're not interested in knowing in a quantified way how different a map is from reality, then we live in different worlds. As I said at the top of the article, the point wasn't that there is a bias (because that's no surprise to anyone) but to find out how large that bias is.
If folks want to toss links to good examples of cartograms in replies here, I'll add them to the article!