I think Hogans point is that when using the two cameras in real life as a professional photographer there is little difference when it comes to getting the shot. It's easy to make an impressive video showing a very sticky af box with a mirrorless camera, but how you make a video showing how well a D6 autofocuses while set to auto area af? The only thing that matters in the real world is keeper rate and as a D5 owner I can assure you ANY professional should find the AF in ANY modern camera more than up to the task.I was an early adopter of the nikon Z7, and followed a lot of what Thom said/posted in real time.. I think he's either an ambassador, a pseudo-ambassador or too brand loyal to be objective - he was always extremely dismissive on any comment about the poor autofocus and kept saying its because people didn't understand the mirrorless AF setup and that it differed from dSLR. I initially believed it (probably because I wanted to), but these days I just struggle to take him seriously after that. Including where he says now that A1 and D6 are no different in AF performance.
His comments about people not knowing how to take full advantage of Nikon's af systems rings true to me. I have been shooting Nikon for awhile now and in doing so have talked to many other nikon shooters and am shocked at how many people rely on single point, dynamic or group af while NEVER using auto area. Auto area af is NOT an af mode designed to aid beginners. Auto area af is where most of the complex algorithm is focused. Nikon bodies have had face detect af (that works) all the way back to the D750. I would venture to say that among my birding friends 99% of them have never used auto area af for bird in flight yet in my experience it is the ONLY mode Ill use for it.