Different cameras have different dynamic ranges (pro cameras can have much higher dynamic ranges than an iphone or even a consumer DSLR), so what dynamic range do you find acceptable? (Also it's pretty hard to show via a digital image what your naked eye would see, since the eye has a high dynamic range.)
HDR isn't just about the range of the camera.
It's about the range compression used to go from the original light intensity to the 8-bit JPEG rendered in your browser. The image in the article has very aggressive, nonphysical tone mapping. If they didn't, the bottom of the scene would be black.
