So, I finally had the time to go through the article's supplementary material, and I have to say that my previous point about susceptibility to moisture might not be as valid as I thought. While I'm not yet 100% certain about the specific, fluoro-silane bonds to hydrophilic OH groups throughout the volume of the sample instead of being a simple coating (which I wrongfully assumed), and they have treated the delignified wood sample in it before the pressing took place. They also conducted emissivity tests on both hydrophobic and untreated samples to see if it made any difference, which showed negligibly changed spectra. Anyway, while doing my due diligence I also found this fun paper in references, and will probably write something more once I'm done with those. My bad, Hubski. I shouldn't have written my previous comment hastily, even if the Ars Technica author clearly didn't go through the trouble himself either. Still think that the material is pretty damn neat, though.