The author doesn't mention that buying from companies¹ perceived as evil incurs an $I cost. In the same fashion one wants to support indie devs, there's resistance to feeding the beast responsible for bad market direction. It's basically a boycott; one still consumes the product, but without supporting the publisher.
¹Companies with dodgy user-experience track records, intrusive DRM, or who are perceived as having a negative effect on industry or the direction game design is going. Examples: Ubisoft, due to the forced-online connection even for single-player games, EA for Origins and banning policy, etc.
For example, think back to when Spore was pirated: http://torrentfreak.com/spore-most-pirated-game-ever-thanks-.... That's an example of a negative $I cost: even people with no interest in the game were getting on board, to send a message to EA.
¹Companies with dodgy user-experience track records, intrusive DRM, or who are perceived as having a negative effect on industry or the direction game design is going. Examples: Ubisoft, due to the forced-online connection even for single-player games, EA for Origins and banning policy, etc.