I actually have no idea what he is talking about there. What I know is how payment channels work. (And of course ligthning is “just” connecting many bi-directional payment hubs together.) But in in payment channels there is absolutely no risk of losing money:

1. You open the channel: if it doesn’t confirm, your channel opening doesn’t happen. Your coins go back to you in 2 weeks.
2. You close the channel: if that doesn’t confirm then your coins are staying on the channel.

The worst the hub can do is to shut itself, therefore freezing your coins for 3 days, or whatever your channel opening timeout is. (We don’t know what timeouts will be used in practice.)