Yes, but it is still applying that function to a single column (the summarise example I gave could aggregate multiple columns into a single result, e.g. sum(col1 / col2))
He was talking about burners being used to be seemingly undetectable, which got me thinking about people with nearly imperceptible tells, and how both of these "nearly invisible" things are seen by big brother. You are right though... it's a very questionable segue.