What point did he make? He just said think about but didnt say what he thinks about it. I need to write some code to implement this https://www.readcube.com/articles/10.2139/ssrn.3514894 Summary: Despite that our calibration methodology is suboptimal and we only have six parameters, VIX smiles generated by the model with parameters (3) fall systematically within market bid-ask spreads. The whole SPX volatility surface is also very well reproduced, in particular the overall shape of the SPX smiles, including extreme left tails.
His point is that October VIX futures are overpriced as compared to other months, but also that it's a lot of weight to carry VIX at such expensive price in general. I found it especially interesting because I myself currently test using VIX options to arbitrage the spread between October and December VIX, with limited risk.
I guess you are trading calendars on VIX options (based on Oct/Dec), with the shorts being Oct expiry?
Close, but little more complex because I own more VIX calls than I'm short (and at different/various strikes).