Fat at buttock and thigh is good?

University of Oxford researcher's June 2010 article Gluteofemoral body fat as a determinant of metabolic health is generally cited by popular health science articles as saying it's a good thing to have gluteofemoral fat, or fat at buttocks and thighs. I wonder if it's a misreading. It seems to me the article is saying if you must have excessive fat, you would rather have it at gluteofemoral position, because it's a good place to store it. If we could find two identical people except for the fact that one is generally lean in the whole body and the other has a great amount of gluteofemoral fat, should we say the latter is more likely to be healthy?