Developers rarely control the tools budget; their managers do.
So this whole article is a moot point
Developers detest marketing. If you want to sell them a tool, make it easy for them to find the information they need and leave them alone to try out your tool.
So marketing does work, just not "traditional" or "mainstream" marketing. We've had shareware since the beginning times, which was the ultimate try before you buy. Now we have the subscription model (fbow).
Yeah I'd like to think I'm better than marketing, but really, it just takes the right marketing, and I'm putty in their hands.