This sentence from the article seems to be completely made up and not based in any actual science: "Without water to lubricate tectonic activity, our plates will grind to a halt." In fact, water has nothing to do with tectonic activity, and the "lubricant" seems to be a special kind of molten magma: https://today.ucsd.edu/story/scripps_scientists_discover_lub...
I've asked various times and even asked LLMs if there might be some truth in the idea, but everyone assures me, same as you, that no, water doesn't affect plate movement at all.
try googling/whatever the term to correct any misinformation i gave, here.
eta: I see negative points for defining a term i heard repeatedly over two full decades of cognition. Similar to trying to google the definition, the resounding result is "no."