Ah ok, this makes things clearer :)

I didn't know about this idea (and have not read anything deep on it). However, the article dates from 2018 (this can be guessed from the last paragraph), and Chapline's work is actually a little bit older (2014-2015 I think, after a quick search on the web). In the meantime:

• The results of the Event Horizon Telescope have been released (first observation of the "shadow" of a black hole);
• Gravitational wave observation has been confirmed many times, and consists in the direct observation of the merging of two black holes.

Therefore, I am quite unsure Chapline's theory survives the most recent data (and this is probably why it is not followed by the astrophysics community).