Alternative to tuning automatic hub?
Unwinding the spring, as the article states, will make the hub to shift when you're going faster.

Without touching the internals, the hub will shift at the same speed, no matter how high the cadence is. By changing the chainring-cog ratio you adjust the cadence at which the shift-speed is obtained.

So the answer is no, there is slight difference. By doing what you propose you can make the whole set shift at higher cadence, but at the same angular velocity of rear wheel, so at the same speed.

If you want to shift at higher speed without modifying the hub, you need bigger wheel (if possible).