No, he may be confusing it with surface noise. Early mono pressings were played with 1mil conical stylus while with stereo the stylus used were 0,7mil and played monos fine. You can destroy grooves as @intactaudio said.
A small exception is dirty 78's, where groove width is much greater and a modern stylus will reach the bottom of the groove and not only.
Probably he was refering to that.