“It isnt Chazal it is a later machlokes”
Fair enough. He should have said a machlokes rishonim.
“To say “NO basis is Torah ” [sic] is at best inaccurate if not flat out wrong”
True also. He should have said it had no basis in the mesora, not “no basis in Torah.”
“agree completely. particulary since if anything it undermines his point .”
It’s not clear exactly what his point was, but he might have been citing this as an example of powerful Rabbonim putting machmirus over what’s practical for baal habatim. To change the ~1000 year old practice in order to be choshesh for shitas hageonim was no skin off their backs, but starting Shabbos ~45 minutes earlier would be a lot more noticeable for working people. The parallel to this situation seems relatively clear.
To put it in perspective, if we did year-round daylight savings AND still did shitas R”T, Shabbos would never start before 6PM in NYC. People working 9-5’ers would not even have to leave early on Fridays (depending on commutes).