According to Wikipedia, the Meiri was rediscovered in modern times. I assume that means in the 20th century or so.
However, Hebrewbooks has a copy of the Meiri from 1795. I don't know if that was the first print, but even that gives quite a few years for it to have found its way (or at least discussed) in "mainstream psak" (meaning not Chazon Ish generation but Rabbi Akiva Eiger/Chasam Sofer generation).
When was it actually discovered, where there any "early" discussion as to its validity and was it quoted by 19th century poskim?
Answer
It is not true that the Meiri's Bet haBechirah was "rediscovered" in modern times. The work had never been missing, but was merely in manuscript form for some six hundred years, only being printed for the first time in the 18th century. My guess is that the anonymous author of the article you cite is using the phrase "modern times" to refer to this period, but the implication that the work was either unknown or unstudied before that point is entirely untrue. Obviously, with its publication in the 18th century, it came to be known and studied by a larger group of people.
If you wish to see a printed source for the foregoing, cf:
Menachem Elon, Jewish Law: History, Sources, Principles (4 vols; trans. Bernard Auerbach and Melvin J. Sykes; Jerusalem, 1994), IV:1126, n94.
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