Like most science reporting, the headline is a bit over-the-top, but the article is pretty straightforward. You need to consider here the control/counter-factual -- [time fasting + restricted calories] vs [restricted calories]. And both groups lost on average a decent amount of weight, it was just about the same weight on average.

Personally I do fasting as a mechanism to restrict calories (I would definitely snack more at night). It is ok if it doesn't have other metabolism benefits.

I will say I think the certainty in the interviewed scientists is a wee bit strong for my taste. There is obviously quite a bit of potential treatment heterogeneity in the population (i.e. some things work for some people and not for for others, behavioral interventions are hard).

This looks like a high quality small N for a decent followup, but you can't really look variance in treatment effects for only a few hundred observations. So definitely does not invalidate any personal experimentation someone has done and shown to be effective for themselves.