I saw that article too, back when Stahl posted it. I think I also saw another video where they mention UoC. Personally, I think it's cool to openly acknowledge other games you're looking at. After all, that's what we all do
Re: map information, obviously for games of this type we all struggle to cram as much information onto the map as possible. I suspect for a game with a more complex underlying model like HOI this might turn out a leeetle bit more difficult than for us.
Personally I try to avoid having any "hidden state" for units entirely. Important info must be directly on the unit icon on the map, and everything else in the unit sheet. Still, I wasn't 100% successful with that in UoC: for example to know whether units can be reinforced with steps, you sometimes have to click on them one by one.
Nothing is perfect I suppose...