It's the same as with Linux, GIMP, LibreOffice or OnlyOffice. Some people are so used to their routines that they expect everything to work the same and get easily pissed when not.
That's not contrary to what he said at all, it's just another layer of why things are the way they are.
If you want the average joes, you need good ux. If you don't have it, you won't get/keep them.
Maybe there are good reasons why you don't have decent ux. Maybe other people only do because they spend money. Maybe you can find a way around that, maybe you can't.
Doesn't matter. Good user experience means you keep users, bad user experience means you don't.