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That seems about right to me!  Email, and other forms of online writing, lack any accompanying visual or aural cues to help one interpret a person's tone; all bloggers know, through painful experience, that it is often difficult to convey things like sarcasm effectively in this medium.  At the same time, the usual short length of non-Horwitzian blog posts (let alone emails) deprives one of the opportunity to use greater length as a substitute for the lack of these cues.  Hence, the rise of the exclamation mark.

I'd add one other explanandum.  Email conversations have a way of dragging on.  You think: "I wrote Person X to ask what time the meeting is.  They wrote back and said '3 o'clock.'  Should I write back and say thanks?  Will they write back and say 'You're welcome?'  Can I just close the door on this conversation, or would the failure to respond be too peremptory?  Better safe than sorry."  An exclamation mark can sometimes nip these things in the bud by putting an enthusiastically polite spin on your correspondence the first time around.

In any event -- read the article!  And note that the Pos sometimes uses exclamation marks very effectively!