On the one hand, you are not wrong. On the other hand, the idea to use a texture like that of a pizza to modify a completely different image, like a fantasy map, might not have occurred to everyone. The value of the blog post might be rather in telling others about this idea than the actual steps how to implement it.

Context is king. A tutorial is just a steps-to-reproduce guide, but the story helps you to remember it. Except for food recipes...

As a fervent fan of the author, I can confirm that definitely was the idea.

Knowing how to use Photoshop is one thing. Knowing what tricks you can use to make effects work is another.

How many high level Photoshop tutorials have you been publishing recently? Do share.

Yeah, but it's on an RPG blog, not a Photoshop blog, so think of it as a fantasy map tutorial with an unfamiliar tool.