I don't see a recent article on MSNBC, do you have a link?
Besides, who else would the deal favor? Those three are the ones that are used by companies to decide if you get a loan. It isn't perfect, but it does allow you to see if there is any weird activity, if you need more you can always pay for it. It's better than nothing and you can spread out the tree reports to different months. So you can check over the whole year.