That article was written based on smaller displacement engines that can’t take advantage of the increased flow.
On my 6.1L SRT, I picked up over a tenth of a second in the 1/4 mile and gained almost 3 mph at the traps by switching to a K&N. As far as letting additional dirt through, the inside of my air tube from the filter to the plenum shows no difference in dirt inside after nearly 70k miles using the K&N.
If I was in an extremely dusty environment, I would choose a paper filter for the protection...but I don’t live or drive in that kind of environment, so I choose to gain the extra performance.