I also agree with the author.
$HOME/cfg or $HOME/lib already have equivalents as .config or .local (by default) so why not put all the dot files there like the freedesktop recommends and use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME as "cfg" so that it's not a hidden file.

Moreover, we also see a lot of people, including myself, that uses symbolinc links with those dot files, pointing to a directory where they are all there, centrally managing the important ones. It's redundant at this point, but how are we going to change hundred of thousands of applications writing dot files to the home directory, the harm is already done.