I don't know anything about the BMW's, but from all the descriptions the GT and GTL sound like basically the same bike. I would define that as: if you can strip away aesthetics and amenities from each bike and eventually end up with two identical bikes, then they are the same bike in different clothes.
I'm sure the BMW's are great bikes, but I'm not sure about the comparison. As others have been hinting at, I don't consider the GT to be in the same class as the C14. The capabilities may be similar, but the price difference alone is enough to warrant different classifications. Basically what they said was, for a lot more money you get a bike that's more comfortable and has more torque (thanks to an extra 200cc's). I didn't need a magazine article to tell me that.
I was a little surprised to see that the Kawi has higher load capacity than the BMW by almost 50 lbs (about the difference in weight between the bikes). Unless that's a typo in the magazine, that's a bit disappointing for the Beemer and a pretty obvious downside to that extra curb weight.