He’s sort of right and sort of wrong. You see this more explicitly in aviation, where it isn’t unusual for engines to have a maximum take-off power rating with a time limit and a different, lower, maximum continuous power. This isn’t the same thing as recommended power settings, but explicit operational limitations. In reality aviation (and boat) engines live most of their lives either at 65-100% power (cruise and take-off) with minimal idle on the ground and brief lower power output in descent.

The trick with cars is that most spend virtually no time at high power output. Freeway cruise doesn’t require that much power and most people don’t floor their cars often, and auto manufacturers have been known to take this into account when doing their engineering to reduce cost.

I love a small block Chevy, but the first and second gen engines were sort of notorious for being designed for American usage patterns (quarter miles and freeway cruise at 60) and not surviving in Motorsports applications or even on the autobahn without extensive breathing on. The flipside is that German cars have the reputation for engineering excellence and durability that they have because surviving the autobahns means being built for sustained, high output in a way that cars in other places weren’t required to. That said, it’s probably been at least 20 years since anyone sold a car that wouldn’t survive sustained high output for a larger-than-necessary fraction of its expected mileage.