Not really counter intuitive, with low powers you have a wider FOV and when you raise the magnification you are making the FOV smaller.
Balancing the magnification/ eyepiece exit pupil to gather as much light as possible will let you see further as this is mostly done with low to mid powers.
The lower the power the wider the exit pupil, higher power gives smaller exit pupils so less light gathering.

I will watch the video to see what context he is discussing.

 

I watched the video and what I mentioned above is what he is discussing though he does not refer to it specifically as exit pupil.

 

Exit pupil is the name of the game.

Scott is a great guy and he always amazes me with his depth of knowledge, whether at club meetings, public outreach events, or at workshops.

 

These days I tend to match EP's to specific scopes by their respective exit pupils rather than their focal lengths. I just find it easier. Especially when you have an SCT, two Newtonians, three Mak's and seven refractors lol.