I'm guessing the author and most of HN missed the memo that Zeppelin is back and producing a modern semi-rigid design called the Zeppelin NT, which has been in use notably for the newest Goodyear fleet starting in 2014: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppelin_NT
The author definitely missed the Zeppelin NT. One flew over Silicon Valley for several years, from 2008 to 2012. They had the misfortune of launching a luxury experience during a recession. The ship worked great.
It had three steerable propellors, two steerable. This made it far more manuverable than classic airships. No more needing an army on the ground to tie the thing down.
DARPA and Lockheed's Skunk Works built a airship in 2017 or so with even more steerable fans. That thing could fly itself out of a hanger, take off, return to base, land on a short runway, and taxi to the hangar.
High winds on the ground remain a problem. Just too much sail area.
The Zeppelin NT is great. I got to ride on one of their last California flights. One of the best things was being right there with the pilots. They showed us how the controls work and were happy to take little detours if we wanted to see something.
Here's a comment from a couple of years ago with links to some Zeppelin information and my photos from the flight:
> It’s not called a Zeppelin unless it comes from the Zeppelin region of Germany, otherwise it’s just a sparkling airship.