Actually, write amplification (WA), and an increased amount of writing (using PE cycles) to a SSD due to NTFS compression (if that really happens) or anything else, are two different things. WA does not simply mean something is causing more writes to occur on a SSD. But it is true that the more writes performed on a SSD, the more likely an increase in write amplification will occur.
Write amplification (WA) is a phenomenon that occurs due to the nature of NAND storage, and how a SSDs firmware deals with the requirements of NAND storage. In general it means that a SSD will actually write more than the amount of bytes it has been told to write, which does use more PE cycles. WA is not the fault of anything that causes a SSD to write data, but may be a side affect of writing to a SSD, depending upon its state ( such as amount of free space and usage history.)
I agree that the article did not demonstrate an increased amount of writes occur when using NTFS compression, or at least did not do a good job of doing so.
The general consensus now is the concern over using up a SSD's PE cycles is not warranted, and is not an issue the user must deal with. NAND storage has proved to be much more robust than some thought, and the number of specified PE cycles is very conservative. I have not seen anything written about "worn out" SSDs, except in special endurance testing done by some amateur SSD enthusiasts. That only occurred after over 100 Terabytes were written to a SSD, and usually several hundred Terabytes were written before the SSD began to show signs of wear. If your SSD fails within the warranty period, it will be replaced, quite likely with a new model, so IMO wearing out a SSD is a non-issue.
