I did read that. Non-responsiveness to the Hep B vaccine is a well-known phenomenon, and it seems that the rate of non-responsiveness may be generally higher than average for other vaccines (5-15% as opposed to 2-10%).
Hepatitis B Foundation: Vaccine Non-Responders. Whether or not the absence of antibodies indicates a complete lack of immunity is a more complicated question:
Primary vaccine failure to routine vaccines: Why and what to do? And non-response to one vaccine does not necessarily correlate to a similar non-response to other vaccines, and it probably depends partly on the vaccine's adjuvant. Here is an interesting and peripherally related article on rattlesnake venom as a potential treatment for neuropathy-- the interesting part is that the combine the toxin with silica in order to blunt the immune response to the toxin, a strategy that is used to improve vaccine response in a similar fashion (by preventing the body from destroying the vaccine too quickly, it allows time for antibodies to form).
However,
in general, age seems to be an aggravating factor in how effectively the body responds to vaccines or boosters (see the NIH link above). Given that, I would certainly want my teen vaccinated for HPV earlier than later. Nor would I use the fact that
somepeople don't respond to vaccines to argue that
no one should be vaccinated.
The flu shot is a different problem, since it's a crapshoot to try to match it to multiple strains and mutations each season. But even given an overall lower vaccine effectiveness, your odds are still better getting the vaccine than not.