Perhaps people are skeptical about the claim of originality for a straightforward algebraic manipulation that can be carried out and understood by middle school students. (As far as I can see, that is what the article claims.) Bright people "reinvent the wheel" all the time. The rediscovery of the trapezoidal rule for numerical integration is a recent popular example.

Also, unrelated and probably unfair ... maybe a few cynical and overly skeptical people become a little cautious when they see a link to Tech Review.