The article mentions The Drifters, which it says has had over 60 members over the years. I actually knew one of them, a great bass singer. He told me that at the time there were no less than six groups touring as The Drifters.
Yeh, the music industry has always assumed audiences are uninformed goobers. Remember that lawsuit from 70's band It's a Beautiful Day? Their manager had tricked them into letting him trademark the band's name, so when they later tried to get away from him he just hired some random players and sent them out under the name It's a Beautiful Day. The original band sued and lost, based on a judge's decree that all pop bands sound alike and band members were thus interchangeable. The judge went so far as to tell the original founders that they owed the unscrupulous manager a million dollars.
Today you can go to any casino and hear Styx - but only the bass player is original. Sometimes they do a double bill with REO Speedwagon, which also features just one original member. Blood, Sweat and Tears is still performing, but with
none of its original band members. So many currently-touring oldies acts are really nothing more than tribute bands, and many honest tribute bands are actually better.