Without them talking about how much people LOST, this entire article is meaningless. With the advent of 0DTE options which dominate options trading, the fact that the notional number of people who made money makes sense because so many more people have lost money.
Of course they made money from other traders. But that is precisedly the issue with insider trading - you are taking money from more honest traders.
Yes, someone is on the other side of the losing trade, but how many people (not firms) do you know who write contracts for short term options?
I personally don’t know any, and I worked at one of the biggest HFT firms for a few years.
The losing side(s) of these positions are heavily hedged, and are happily making money on volume and volatility. (And making record profits this year)