The article doesn’t go into it, but a key advantage they have is that heat pumps move heat, rather then trying to generate it. So they can move a lot more heat into your house than would be generated by running the electricity they use through a resistor. This makes them effectively more than 100% efficient (the exact amount depends on temperature) as compared with burning a fuel or resistive heat.
I think the point is to compare the heat pump with an electricity heater, there may be other ways that generate less carbon footprint of course
The point is to compare a heat pump with a natural gas furnace.
The efficiency of getting electricity to a house may be less, but a heat pump has an energy efficiency greater than 1.