It's not about removing complexity or cutting possibilities: it's about the way the complexity is introduced.

I have a bad feeling when I read this, because it's to me an absolutely wishy-washy kind of argument. "It's about the way complexity is introduced" says in my opinion absolutely *nothing* about the complexity itself.

You can introduce "complexity" like climbing a steep ladder, or a low ladder. You can wriggle complexity so that it is hardly noticed (because it's running in the background) or so that the player is confronted with it (example : Micro-Management. It can be run in the background with not bothering the player at all, or it can be "introduced" via a screen with he player having to decide on all the tiny bits).