These articles may represent the authors' experiences, but they definitely don't reflect mine. I've been using turface for many years now and don't have these issues at all. I mix it 2:1:1 turface:grit: pine bark, and for the pine bark I usually use Metromix 510, which is fancy potting soil that is heavily pine bark based.
I have healthy trees and have no problem at all with root growth or tree growth. This, incidentally, is also the mix used by my local bonsai shop, and they have strong, healthy trees as well. It's possible other mix percentages don't work out as well, but I've had no trouble with it the way I use it.
It also turns out to be a slightly lower maintenance mix in that it retains water a little bit longer than a purely inorganic mix would. Sometimes I travel and have others look after my trees, so this becomes important occasionally. But it can take daily watering no problem, so it's kind of best of both worlds.
This is definitely not the black & white situation that people make it out to be. Interestingly, I've had far more trouble over the years with trees that I acquired in akadama that had broken down and turned into a brick.
I'd be very curious to know if the folks who got poor results were using it as part of a mix (and if so, what it was) or if they were just planting in straight turface. Because while I'm sure they did get the results they said they got, they are so contrary to my own that I figure something must have been quite different in the approach.