Books on tape must not have been a thing when he said that because it is clearly the best of both worlds to listen to books while getting other things done.

Note: this is NOT mutually exclusive of reading or having physical books. It is a method to augment the rate of consumption.

Right now, I'm listening to The Immortality Key by Brian C Muraresku but I also have a physical copy loaded with bookmarks.

As I listen, I can garden, do dishes, clean, etc. If I hear something important, I can pause the audio and go find the corresponding page from the physical book and bookmark and highlight/underline/mark up as appropriate.

It's a layered system but it offers certain efficiency pick ups that are not realized when one is reading. There's not much one can do to multitask while reading.