I think the articles are blowing the statement out of proportion. Yes, it is in the Coinbase SEC filings etc, but it is somewhat obvious that if you don't control the private keys, the bitcoin are not your's. You are just a creditor. That has been known all along and is nothing new. It is just like if you have assets at a US Bank - although purportedly not at a Swiss bank.
To me it sounds like FUD spread by people who want people to be scared and panic.
Informing investors of the risks is a lot of CYA, the reporting on it is FUD.
I agree that in many ways this has been blown out of proportion. However I do think that there is value in this article reminding people that you don´t strictly own the money on sites such as Coinbase. Mostly I think that some people live under the impression that sites like Coinbase etc are similar to a bank in sense that yes - Coinbase and bank could go under, but it´s purely theoretical.