What the developer is referring to in that second quote is that a better player can win even with a worse army. I can own people in Counterstrike even with a shitty gun because I'm good at FPS games. 12azor can destroy you with zero intelligence bulletins because he's 12azor.
But, if 2 players are otherwise equally matched, then intel bulletins = advantage.
Money = intel bulletins, therefore money = advantage, therefore Pay2Win.