This is a very useful article and follow-up. Anomalies start as a curiosity that academics want to explore further, but investors can't necessarily use them.
One thing to watch out for is how long the anomalous outperformance persists. Did the academic find it (only) in returns only the next month? The next year? Maybe just the next few hours? All of those are interesting to academics, but an investor can't make use of any short-term anomaly without incurring pretty significant trading costs, especially if the outperformance reverses after that short initial period. And that seems to be the story with the low-volatility anomaly: it shows up only briefly, which means it's of interest only to academics and those active traders who end up blowing all of their (gross) returns on fees and expenses.