That logic is about as smart as arguing against buying a audi R8 because you have a mazda3 and you should learn to drive better. While photography skills matter the most, having better hardware even for novice photographers will still lead to better photos via hardware.
His layouts and creativity in his shots were justifying of him making the jump. The greatest photographer in the world with his fujifilm point in shoot wont be able to take out the low light grain that's produced by a smaller image sensor. DSLR's arent thousands of dollars anymore, I picked up mine for 250 on craigslist with 2 lenses (my wife's nikon is another story).