No idea whether it’s their reason, but anecdotally I’ve found it has a few benefits. If coordinated properly it’s significantly easier to train new(er) staff, it improves cross-organisational understanding to overhear other departments’ conversations either at desks or in break rooms, and it stops people becoming isolated pockets of knowledge and culture because they only ever see or interact with the same one or two people.

Given the context of the article, the alternative suggestion isn’t “set up your own server” but “use software that doesn’t require a server”, which sidesteps most of that list.

They do, but in a way that I think felt limiting. You can’t have too many identities without making them quite weak, and then you have limited slots to have them do something cool or just substitute for skills/stress checks.

There’s also the feeling that your character can’t progress at anything outside their identities, because progress in one skill is regression in another and is entirely at the fate of a dice roll.

I’m sure it’s great for other people’s playstyles, it’s just not my cup of tea.

Eh, we’ve tried it, but the skills being tied together and to the sanity meters ruined character builds, so it just wasn’t fun. We’ve kept the idea of making connected characters (just an ally and a rival) because it makes for excellent plot hooks, but otherwise went back to 2nd Ed.

“Modern Urban Fantasy” is synonymous with Unknown Armies 2nd Ed to me. Though it is very gritty in tone and revolves around the idea that magic makes you crazy, but the core mechanics are very flexible and it’s a d100 system, you could probably just change the narrative fluff and have a perfectly workable, if lethal, game.