Summary: 

Since the introduction of Carousel steps in Flow Builder, we find there is almost no benefit to using Article steps any more. With just a couple of small enhancements, Carousel steps could easily replace Article steps in Flow Builder entirely.

Benefits of Carousel step over Article step: 

1. Carousels can include 10 links, whereas Article steps can only contain 6 links.
   
   
2. Carousels offer the freedom to mix Help Center article links alongside other relevant links.
   
   For example, we have an "Order Status" flow where we use a Carousel to list:
   • our 2 most popular Help Center articles on this topic, 
   • a link to a page on our direct website where customers can check their order status, and
   • a link to the parent/directory page for the entire "Orders" category of our Help Center, where all order-related articles are listed.
   
   
   
   
3. Superior customization options, such as the ability to configure exactly what an article or page description will say. This is in contrast to Article steps where you're locked in to pulling the first XX characters from the article, regardless of how messy it looks, what it says, or where the text gets truncated. 
   
   
   

Benefits of Article step over Carousel step: 

1. The Article step throws an error if an article page link no longer functions, such as if the article was unpublished.
   
   
2. The Article step only eats up 1 "step" toward your Flow limit, whereas Carousel steps eat up 2 for the same functionality (a Message step + Carousel step).
   
   .... That's it. End of benefits. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
   
   

Description/Use Cases: 

The Carousel should include a message as part of the step, and users can simply choose whether the list item they're adding is a Help Center article link or an external link. If a Help Center article link, Flow Builder should listen for an unpublish on the article, and produce an error when/if the article link changes or stops functioning.

Additionally, if the Product team considers this change, it's worth considering expanding the number of Carousel items that can be added (such as raising the limit from 10 items to 12 - 15).

Business impact of limitation or missing feature:

We have chosen to use Carousel steps exclusively because despite its limitations, it is still far superior to the Article step, even for the Article step's sole purpose of listing Help Center articles.

However, the Carousel's few limitations (eating up more steps, the necessity of manually checking all article links periodically to ensure there are no dead links) are extremely time-consuming and not a great UX for admins.