This is one of my... frustrations with the online design community. I wish there was a site devoted to the Mailchimps of the world: applications that do things for people and look great doing it.
The problem is that most of those sites are not interesting from an aesthetic point of view.
And that is the problem with SM IMHO. It talks about functionality and business and trends and optimization but uses only eye candy to prove it's point.
Don't get me wrong. I am all for good looking design, but it's quite obvious that unless you are able to sell your style. Style isn't part of what ultimately makes a business successful.
Most of the sites in that SM article don't have business objectives other than to showcase great design.