Blanket statements like this are made to be eye-catching headlines.
Of course it depends on the many details. Interest rate, opportunity cost, risk tolerance, etc.
The wife and I have student loans that are now paid off to have a remaining balance of just under 3K for me, and about $800 for her.
I have about 70 grand cash sitting in various money market and checking accounts. I could quite easily pay them off.
But the interest rate is 3.5% or so. I'd rather pay the minimums and the tiny amount of interest and have the $3800 extra in cash for jumping on opportunities (like houses).
I'll be sad the day they're paid off. Sure, it'll free up a few hundred in cashflow but I'd rather have the chunk of cheap cash.
For others it may be different.
Mostly though the pay it down early crowd is the "no debt" crowd that just wants to pay it down to not have debt, rather than because it's the mathematically smart thing to do, cause, as this article points out, it usually isn't.
Reading through that article though, I have to say, it was VERY well written. Kudos to the author, cause many personal finance sites these days (MMM excluded) write very blah stuff (GRS, FMF, TSD, etc.) Good examples and good discussion.
However looking at the first comment, his reply, and her counter reply, it shows what I was talking about regarding the "no debt" crowd - they're often stubborn to the point of being irrational about debt.