No, I believe someone still loses.
In the case of the conservative deep-in-the-money covered call strategy of SPY at 165 we have been talking about, if the market drops the article author still gets his 6% gain up until the market is down 15% from the current level. After that he still loses, but less than the market. His gain relative to a buy-and-holder comes out of whoever buys the calls from him. Now, his call buyer might have hedged his own way, and passes the loss to another market strategist, or spreads it around several other market players, but someone loses.
And on the other side of the coin, if the market goes up 10% which is really 12% after dividends, the article author is still stuck at his 6% objective gain. His underperformance of 6% relative to the market is now extra gain in the pocket of his call buyer, who is holding an appreciating asset.
The only mechanism that "prints money" and gives most everyone more is for the market to go up. In a bull market, everybody feels like a genius, whether he wins a little by investing conservatively, or a lot by leveraging. In a bear market, if I lose less than the market, I should feel smug.