These are journalists describing science. I think more accurate would be "these vortices are a consequence of the process of generating lift with that wing". They create drag, which we don't want, but they come with the lift which we want.

An analogy would be to say "the rubber you leave on the road from your tires creates all the thrust for your car". Tearing up the tires and heating the road from the slipping rubber rob some of the engine's energy, but you can't go forward without them.