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I agree that the Article module is the most feature rich module when compared to the news module, and it does news, blogs, pages, etc. However, it is not bug-free nor complete. The News module works OOB.
Also, I've found that most clients don't need the functionality of the Article module. Most just need/want a simple news module with solid, simple functionality. The News module does just that and does it well.
As to templates and layout, I've found that I always have to play with templates to make them work well for any website. No one is ever happy with the default layout of any module, it seems.
As to the Article module, I have a bug-free version I'd be willing to share in the SVN, and will work with the team to get it up. There is still some missing functionality, but not that I've needed to put into use yet.