There's a bit of an either-or fallacy here, but overall I agree. I think companies would do well to heed your advice and figure out what is and what is not an appropriate perk.
Things that I, personally, would find appropriate:
- Free cokes and possibly (if you're huge) free food. Just don't provide it and then complain about how much it costs later. Worked at a place like that once, it sent an extremely confusing message.
- A culture that allows employees to bring in "cubicle toys" if they want. But I might draw the line at projectile weapons (see below).
- Gym memberships, company cars, and other more traditional perks are always nice.
Stuff that I, personally, would find more inappropriate:
- Projectile, melee, or any other types of weapons, Nerf or not. Don't get me wrong, I'm not making a political statement here. These things are plenty fun. The problem is that they, as the article points out, are a TRUE distraction and they by necessity distract more than one person. The other issue is that they can be awfully annoying to people who, for whatever reason, just aren't in to that stuff. Then they have to feel somewhat ostracized for never being the guy that wants to get into a lightsaber battle while his code is compiling.
- Foosball games, pool tables, in-office basketball courts, and the like. For mainly the reasons you listed in your post.
But I think all this has to be decided on a company-by-company basis. These will be choices that reflect the personality of the founders and, eventually, upper level management. You may not completely agree with every point made in the article, but you would do well, I think, to heed the general warning: work is not play. That doesn't mean work can't be fun, it just means that these are two separate activities with different cultural expectations and mostly different social circles. Mixing the two can be very awkward.