They say "never judge a book by its cover", but that's assuming you already have a copy in your hands and ready to read. If you're in a library or bookstore looking for books, then the cover is the first thing you see and may make or break the deal: as the NYT article says, if the cover is interesting then you might pick it up and give it a read; if not then you might just walk away. No one has time to read every single book ever, therefore a good cover is essential to gaining readers' attention.
Kidd gave a lot of examples in his talk regarding designing covers. My favorite was the design for Naked, where the dust jacket was made nearly the height of the book and had the image of a pair of shorts. When you take the jacket off, it's like taking the shorts off and revealing something more naked than the naked body -- an x-ray of the groin area. I haven't read the book, so I don't know if this has any meaning in regard to the contents, but this clever cover design and its clear relation with the title is enough to spark my interests and give it a read.
This kind of hands-on interaction is also something you wouldn't get with an e-book. I've tried reading e-books before, and I always found it hard to focus while using a kindle, etc. Perhaps that feeling of holding a book in your hands and flipping the pages is really that important. These creative covers offer something that e-books cannot: you cannot "take someone's pants off" with an e-book, nor can you appreciate the clever double-image translucent design done Murakami's 1Q84, and I think this creativity will continue to keep paperback books alive.
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