Yup you're right in that the new AMD CPUs and GPUs are going to be more competitive and that the number of AMD-only laptops will surely rise because of it. SmartShift is a clever approach to squeezing out more performance at essentially no additional hardware cost because most PC games never utilize 100 percent of the CPU and GPU simultaneously. The main drawback is that SmartShift might not reach as many laptop users as it deserves because of its strict component requirements.
This author doesn't seem to be too forward thinking. If you go to any tech store none of the amd powered laptops will be too convincing; smart shift tech also won't be available. However, AMDs new CPUs and GPUs are more competitive and there should be multiple models available later this year. Will very many gamers use them? No. However, how many gamers actually use laptops in the first place? Regardless, I'm not sure why the author decided to take such a negative take on a cool feature-especially one that might increase performance by 10%
If only AMD can allow us to access more detail voltage/Frequency control their mobile discrete GPU...... currently, AMD's mobile GPU's voltage control is rather basic, many advance undervolt/memory overclock is simply locked out in many SKU, and will require third party software to attempt in these endeavor.
The AMD-only feature can give you "free" CPU and GPU performance by dynamically optimizing the power budget between the processors. Laptops with Nvidia or Intel hardware need not apply even though they make up the vast majority of the gaming laptops in the market.