Wasn't his primary reasoning based on the fact that Birkdale's holes seem to be very well defined as compared to most links courses where you sort of feel like you don't really have any topographical features to guide you down the hole?
I thought it made sense the way he explained it, but I think it also might be rooted in a bit of false impressions, geared mostly for the American audience. For example, before I ever played a round on a links course, I was concerned about how to play that type of golf because pictures always made it look like standing on the tee, there was no defined "route" to the hole. I was used to courses here in the US where you usually have trees or mounding or something to guide you and holes are often separated individually rather than clumped next to each other like a lot of links courses (TOC for example). However, when I actually found myself in Scotland, just about every course I played (Turnberry, Muirfield, Dornoch, Kingsbarns, Nairn, Cruden Bay) seemed to have well-defined layouts such that I had no problem navigating the holes, with the sole exceptions being TOC, Troon on occasion, and a couple holes at Carnoustie.
So, while I completely understand what I think it was IBF was trying to say, I'm not sure I agree with what I understood him to say, particularly from my now-links-experienced point of view.