Yes, but if you can overwrite the Genesis Block, then you can start the whole chain earlier. So, for example, instead of starting from 2009-01-03, you could start from 1970-01-01. And then, you could pretend that the whole chain existed earlier. So, this block was hardcoded to prevent pretending that Bitcoin was invented before by someone else than Satoshi.
The inclusion of the scriptsig's message was a reference to the article so yes, that is what Satoshi intended; proving that he started the chain no earlier than the date but it has nothing to do with who invented what, and when was it invented. The genesis block is not important, you can just attack by reorganizing everything after the genesis block and it would achieve the same thing. It is definitely better to have a pre-defined starting point for a blockchain though.
Genesis block was hardcoded for the start, if I'm not wrong. Here's the snippet of the code.
//
// Init with genesis block
//
if (mapBlockIndex.empty())
{
if (!fAllowNew)
return false;
// Genesis Block:
// GetHash() = 0x000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f
// hashMerkleRoot = 0x4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b
// txNew.vin[0].scriptSig = 486604799 4 0x736B6E616220726F662074756F6C69616220646E6F63657320666F206B6E697262206E6F20726F6C6C65636E61684320393030322F6E614A2F33302073656D695420656854
// txNew.vout[0].nValue = 5000000000
// txNew.vout[0].scriptPubKey = 0x5F1DF16B2B704C8A578D0BBAF74D385CDE12C11EE50455F3C438EF4C3FBCF649B6DE611FEAE06279A60939E028A8D65C10B73071A6F16719274855FEB0FD8A6704 OP_CHECKSIG
// block.nVersion = 1
// block.nTime = 1231006505
// block.nBits = 0x1d00ffff
// block.nNonce = 2083236893
// CBlock(hash=000000000019d6, ver=1, hashPrevBlock=00000000000000, hashMerkleRoot=4a5e1e, nTime=1231006505, nBits=1d00ffff, nNonce=2083236893, vtx=1)
// CTransaction(hash=4a5e1e, ver=1, vin.size=1, vout.size=1, nLockTime=0)
// CTxIn(COutPoint(000000, -1), coinbase 04ffff001d0104455468652054696d65732030332f4a616e2f32303039204368616e63656c6c6f72206f6e206272696e6b206f66207365636f6e64206261696c6f757420666f722062616e6b73)
// CTxOut(nValue=50.00000000, scriptPubKey=0x5F1DF16B2B704C8A578D0B)
// vMerkleTree: 4a5e1e
// Genesis block
char* pszTimestamp = "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks";
CTransaction txNew;
txNew.vin.resize(1);
txNew.vout.resize(1);
txNew.vin[0].scriptSig = CScript() << 486604799 << CBigNum(4) << vector((unsigned char*)pszTimestamp, (unsigned char*)pszTimestamp + strlen(pszTimestamp));
txNew.vout[0].nValue = 50 * COIN;
txNew.vout[0].scriptPubKey = CScript() << CBigNum("0x5F1DF16B2B704C8A578D0BBAF74D385CDE12C11EE50455F3C438EF4C3FBCF649B6DE611FEAE06279A60939E028A8D65C10B73071A6F16719274855FEB0FD8A6704") << OP_CHECKSIG;
CBlock block;
block.vtx.push_back(txNew);
block.hashPrevBlock = 0;
block.hashMerkleRoot = block.BuildMerkleTree();
block.nVersion = 1;
block.nTime = 1231006505;
block.nBits = 0x1d00ffff;
block.nNonce = 2083236893;
