The last time I saw the qualifying rounds was in Washington, DC. They were endless! An enduring memory was the recent Olympic Champion, Sarah Hughes going splat right in front of me during the qualifyings.
Qualifying lasted until 2006 Worlds (and then came back briefly), but then we were seeing massive fields in singles' events (even even dance a few times) when it reverted to a short program as the first segment. I remember watching the entire mens short from 2009 Worlds, and it was 10+ hours IIRC. The judges simply cannot do it, as big of fans as they may be. That's just asking for scores to be phoned in by start order and world ranking even more than they already are.
But I do think the Russians quoted in the article have some valid points, if not points that lead to other considerations. People traveling to these events already loudly complain about the ticket prices, and now you're adding at least 2 extra days to the all-event ticket price (not sure if QR is included in that price but I don't see why it wouldn't be) and hotel considerations, more days off of work if you want the 'full' experience, and so on. I personally, as someone who has gladly watched a whole lot of skating in the last 30 years, don't think the QRs will attract that many people to the stands or to the streaming options,
if the latter is even an option. The QRs back in the day attracted very, very small audiences and that was at a time when they weren't televised and most of those skaters had never been seen by fans across the world.
As a positive, thankfully the ISU hasn't found a way to once again wiggle QRs into the final score, because that would of course require every skater to do three segments, causing massive event lengths.
I know that more visibility is better for the sport and all of that, but I'm still in the boat of having this 'qualifying round' instead being held as a separate competition in early March each year or something of the like. Nebelborn in Olympic seasons always has more excitement around it, and I think the ISU could do the same with this.