That’s a very narrow view. Machine code is ran in one context – the CPU – with the compiler worrying about this one context. Meanwhile, HTML is parsed by much more than a browser.
Like the article says, there is literally zero drawback to being slightly more semantic. In fact, semantic HTML probably improves your own code, making it easier at a glance to see what components do.
Screen readers, braile readers, rss readers, search bots, voice assistants like Siri or Google Assistant, social media embeds....
Need more?
Future tech too. Who knows what's going to be consuming our content in the future, or what input and output devices we (or others) are going to be using to navigate content and apps.
and anyone still using an RSS reader. Anyone sharing something on Facebook or other social media, me when I'm trying to write an app to do something interesting for which there is no existing API.
Like the article says, there is literally zero drawback to being slightly more semantic. In fact, semantic HTML probably improves your own code, making it easier at a glance to see what components do.