Reading the article, I would say its more of comparing unrelated items and from that trying to make one looks good more than the other. Visa is a payment company just like MasterCard or PayPal that enables people to have access to their money for those who relies on the debit cards as against the credit cards which you are allowed to spend more than what you have.
Cryptocurrency on the other hand is not just one company but series of coins being valued. Now comparing a ton of coins with a company and saying one is better off, is just an uninformed conclusion if you ask me.
I agree with you in the sense that they are both very different types of payment options. I do believe that crypto is much more versatile than visa and that visa is better for the average joe. However, what makes this interesting to me is just the comparison. Visa is known by practically everyone, and crypto has just topped it in terms of the market cap. That alone says something about how crypto may be able to scale into the future.