I don't, of course, understand the full text of the paper, and one of the articles (which I had already read, see edit) says he did write the genome from scratch and another one says he didn't, so I think I'll stick with the semi-informed opinions already given and form my own uninformed opinion from them.

It's certainly a step forward in understanding, and that's a good thing by anyone's standards. I do not think it means what you think it means (see title), but meaning is entirely a matter of opinion...