From what I understood, the sensors on the housing body is meant to be orientated parallel to the ground level for its originally designed detection range. When mounted as shown on that Verge article, the detection range is reduced - This being said, I've seen lots of people saying the camera functions as intended for the most part - it just depends on the area you are trying to monitor. For instance, I use the camera to monitor a deep drive way up to my garage, the camera would pick up movements all the way to the sidewalk/road, with reduced detection range the lights might not turn on until after moving object is half way into my drive way. Also if you mounted it that way, the video feed would need to be adjusted (there is a function in the home app to correct this issue).
IMO - the camera mounted vertically looks silly, so I didn't opt to do that or use other "jimmy rig" option to mount it horizontally.
