I dunno, this reminds me of vegan diets. I like that there are actually a few facts to support this, but with most medical things, just because you isolate one factor (the power of naps), it doesn't mean you've got it right. It could just be that naps are powerful when combined with good sleep.
I like full 8 hour sleep. Nothing makes me feel healthier or work better. It works for teenagers and babies, who are growing and learning a lot. I know in college, having enough sleep is the difference between good grades and failing a subject.
I say sleep is almost as important as eating. You need food for physical strength, sleep for mental strength. If people were like cars, sleep is the maintenance; you don't see what's wrong until you don't do it.
I'm skeptical about the whole thing about great people doing polyphasic sleep. Even if everyone on that list does polyphasic sleep, you can find plenty of others who don't do it. It makes sense with Napoleon though. Military commanders will often be under a lot of stress and not be able to get deep sleep very well. I'm not surprised if programmers or anyone who spends their nights do the same thing. It's likely more a result of amnesia than anything.
I know lots of very fricking smart people, and they have a solid 10 PM-6 AM routine. Then again, I know very smart people who don't sleep much, though it doesn't seem to help them.
Personally, I'm with the belief that humans have an internal control system that works 90% of the time. The only way you can screw up your health is by doing things your body doesn't like. Your body sends signals when you're doing the wrong thing.
Eating whatever you want to eat doesn't make you obese; forcing yourself to eat cheap food you don't really like, or fast food because you don't feel like cooking is what causes obesity. Tasty food in itself doesn't cause heart attacks, but binging on bacon and steak simply because bacon and steak is awesome (and cheap) is what does it.
Exercise is an exception, since you have to force yourself into that routine and then it starts feeling good. Exercise is actually one of the rare medical things that has been perfectly proven, since you have athletes that base their lives around it. Eating/sleeping habits less so.
If your body is resisting your sleep patterns, I think it's just not right. I'm of the belief that if you feel sleepy, go ahead and sleep. If you're hungry, eat. I think sleep deprivation is sort of a debt, much like hunger deprivation.. you can go for days eating only a slice of bread every 6 hours, but after a few days/weeks, you'll eat a whole bunch of stuff to make up for it. It's similar here; you get yourself sleep deprived and eventually you oversleep to make up for it.
I'm open to the idea, but unless I see it working for someone in a high mental stress career, I'm still sticking with biphasic sleep as the best type of sleep. And so far, a lot of high tech companies support siestas, so I know it helps productivity in some way.