I think it's a pretty nice addition. Adding to the last quote you mentioned, what I would say is:
I think it's good to have flexibility in the UI solutions that are available to us. Each one of these has a specific use case they address. No one solution is perfect for everything.
Plus, it will be pretty good for designers and users as well.
The way I understand it is:
Hamburger: Major sections in a larger app
Tab Bar: Sub-sections within a view, to split content types for instance
Kebab: Contextual actions for the current view (refresh, help, etc.)