Downplaying the importance of nodes is a hallmark of people pushing a certain agenda, for which dinofelis gives talking points. (The only reason why they talk Joes into running nodes in their basement, is because bitcoin needs a story, and decentralization sounds like a good selling argument.)
Nodes are "vote by IP number", which is what Satoshi wanted to nullify by vote by PoW. Third page of his paper. There's no link between the number of IP numbers you control and your market stake. The last is not called "vote by full node" but proof of stake (which IS a sensible way to do things). Read the bloody Satoshi paper !
So of course, given that this is so obviously evident that "vote by IP number" cannot be considered of any importance in a system that was from the start, designed to avoid it, there must be another reason. People very knowledgeable of that system cannot ignore the basic design principles of that system, can they ? So there must be a deceptive reason for telling this, given that it is objectively wrong.
What is amazing in this, however, is how elementary and fundamentally wrong it is. It denies the very design of bitcoin !