With compacts the crank arms are the same length (your legs spin the same size circle). If you ride 172.5 normal cranks your compacts will be the same size. The rings are what are smaller. The smaller rings just give you better gear ratios.
The size of the circle which your legs spin depends on crank length, not whether your chainrings are compact or not.
If you read the Slowtwitch article again, it all seems pretty well explained to me there. The main advantage of compact chainrings is basically maintaining close gear ratios and still having a handy hill climbing gear. Weight saving is another advantage.
Some say the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask. Well judging from the responses, looks like Monk asked a question. Then he deleted the question. Must be a stupid question.
I think Monk took a vow of silence.