That it could only be printed is perhaps true, but the relevant galleries that allow the light through must be straight, so they could potentially also be bored/drilled. Moulding or casting might be impossible, though. An automotive engineer I know explained to me how some complex manifold shapes are really only possible with 3D printing. By removing the other manufacturing system constraints, greater efficiency can be achieved.
This could absolutely be done by drilling, and you can see that from the method the 3D sketch was created: it’s a solid object, with the holes virtually drilled out.
The only potential problem I see is that, as you rotate the blade between each drilling operation and then drill new holes, is it possible for coils of material to build up in the previous holes in a way that’s impossible to confidently clear out by simply blowing through them, or by passing a bit back through each hole? The fact that you have this tiny Swiss-cheese structure, and that it’s impossible to place a bore in every hole simultaneously, makes me wonder if this might be a hard problem.
Maybe it’d be easier if you used a laser instead of a drill?
That’s an awful lot of boring, and personally, I’d rather have an exciting sundial.
I wonder how difficult it is to set up, given the amount of precision that was necessary just to get it to work.
Now that’s just showing off! 
Everything is better with lasers! 
Hm. Agreed.
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