I don't see how the ability to adjust the maximum score means that there is no longer a maximum score. The SAT raised their maximum score from 1600 to 2400 a few years ago by adding a new section. That certainly sounds similar to adding new moves with higher point values to me, and yet it's cited as an example of the old type of score.

The point is this, in sports like track and swimming there is no limit to your record other than you can't finish before you started. Theoretically you could run a 1 second 100 meter dash, it will never happen but it could. In gymnastics even in the new system you can't score above 18.8, unless they change the rules. Thus we can say that a routine was x number of points from the perfect routine, it's still a sport of people failing to score the maximum points. To argue otherwise is to argue that even an 18.8 is not a perfect routine because there might be new and harder tricks invented in the future that wouldn't even be legal for a gymnast to do yet. I enjoyed the article because it made me think, but his point on this is just completely wrong.