There might be 2 things here. I know there's a thermal sensor the AMD CPU. I also know that the Asus boards have a hardware circuit that can read the sensor and shut down the system if it gets too hot. That doesn't mean that other boards can't read the temp and send it to a monitor program.
The problem that Tom's Hardware pointed out was that most boards aren't using any on-board circuit for safety, and are relying on software to handle it. That's what Asus added to their boards.
It's possible that the software won't handle it if the temp rises too fast and the system freezes up. However, that's only likely if the heatsink falls off. In the case of a pump failure, you still have some protection in the form of the water block and some small water flow due to the heat, and the temp will just gradually rise until the software kicks in.
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