I think you need to separate "the idea" from the obviously technically unfeasible implementation he gave as an example.

His idea is to make your content free to people who use it casually but to charge people who use it extensively. I think there's some merit to that. The more you use something the more valuable it becomes to you and hence the more likely you are to pay for it.

There are definitely some technical hurdles to it but on the surface it's an idea worth consideratoin.