alt Hacker NewsIt will probably be fine, since the 1N4001 is also rated for temporary spikes to 30A.
"For 1N4001 Diode, the maximum current carrying capacity is 1A it withstand peaks up to 30A."
https://components101.com/diodes/1n4001-diode-pinout-datashe...
They're also cheap as chips, so worst case if it blows they can swap out for 2 of them like you suggest.
The 30 A rating is for a non-repetitive half cycle of 60 Hz, aka 8.3 ms. If the phone is drawing 2 A while booting that's much more than 8.3 ms. Obviously it does survive in the application described in the post but it seems like pointless penny pinching to not choose a suitably rated device especially when the article itself talks about inrush current overloading other parts when the 1000 uF capacitor was discussed.