Well I wouldnt suggest drinking bong water.
But thc is water soluable in small amounts. Small enough that it is generally not a recommended method of extraction/consumption. It depends on your desired results. Many drink tea for pain, nausea and insomnia.
Remember there are upwards of 60 other cannabinoids in pot so each contributes to the effects you feel when you drink steeped pot tea, or ingest butter, or smoke it.
Most of the talk is about thc but it is one contributing factor to your high or med value.
Cannabinoids are more readily soluable in fats so butter is always a favorite for extracting a large majority of active ingredients from even the crappiest of weed.
This article is more referring to how to prepare a solution to enhance the eventual water solution which isnt really an appeal to anyone looking to ingest.
I would say that using an enhanced water extraction for smoking oils would be a longer process since the eventual evaporation part of the job is going to be lengthy. Water evaporates at a much slower rate to conventional solvents.
Either way ita amazing what science can figure out :stoned: