Hi, I’m the author of the article you’ve mentioned. In fact, it is possible to connect* to a beacon as most manufacturers ship them with such functionality. You can connect to a beacon when:

1. You need to configure them
2. You want to read on-board hardware values such as battery level, temperature, etc.
3. Do anything else that a specific beacon hardware may offer under connected mode (blink beacon lights, play sounds, etc.)

*while connected, iBeacon protocol is not used.

As a matter of fact, Apple is already locking its iBeacon™ protocol exclusively to iOS devices as Google is gearing up its “Nearby” standard.