That is really very interesting, 30 years in Alaska had never heard anything like it before.
Yeah, it goes against everything I heard growing up. But, there were still a lot of carbureted engines in cars when I was growing up too (70's and 80's) and the article poses that as a reason why the practice was so common.
If I remote-start my 2500, it will run for about 10 minutes before it shuts off. It's really not good to idle it much longer than that unless you kick it into "high idle" because of the silly particulate filter in the Diesel's exhaust system. It needs higher RPM and heat to burn off all of the crap, otherwise it starts to fill up. I try not to idle it for very long.
BUT... I like a wam vehicle in the winter, so I am pretty conflicted about this. :)