It just means when the article was published, the need was real and make was useful. Context matters. Based on that commit they don't need to download the data

It just means when the article was published, the need was real and make was useful. Context matters. Based on that commit they don't need to download the data to generate the .json file, so they don't, Make became irrelevant. If anything this shows that a tool can be really useful but you don't need to marry it. Don't use if you don't have to.