My main gripe with this article that I've thought about for years now after initially reading it is that the example ignores reality.

In the current system, how do I know what time it is in Australia? Two ways: I either look it up, or I know how many hours it is relative to me. Living in Germany now, I know my parents are -8 and some friends are -9. I still always have to do the math. This is still apriori knowledge necessary that the author just skims over

Compare this to if there were no time zones. I would still need to know when their solar noon was. The amount of information I would need to retain is the exact same. Looking it up would also be just the same, except the lookup would tell us the sun position instead of the local time.

Don't get me wrong, I mostly agree with the article's point. The example just never felt adequate.