I think the person you're quoting wasn't talking about the game world's economy but the game's economy. As in, the reward system and the rate of progress, what incentives exist to do some things and avoid others. Like dying for example. Currently, dying is virtually free. There's very little incentive to not die in the bubble since you lose virtually no progress when that happens right now.
Another symptom is how long you spend in the starter ships. Back when I started, you'd easily spend a couple days in an Adder or Eagle, and then a couple weeks in a Viper or Cobra mk3. There was a logical path of progression there, and each ship upgrade would improve your ability to keep upgrading further.
Currently you can jump straight into a Cobra or Viper from a Sidewinder by bounty hunting for an hour in a RES or, as we've seen with the Morai CG and the crystals CG before that, go from a Cobra straight to a Conda.
I'd propose that the progression was bonkers to begin with. Yes, it was OK at the start (Sidey -> Cobra), but after that it becomes a crazy grind. Even now. Probably will become even more crazy once even bigger ships get released.
And while I have a hefty number of credits in the bank (200 mil at the moment) and a fleet of ships of various sizes, considering I'm trying to get enough money to outfit my Tradeconda for combat, losing progress is never welcome, so I avoid deaths as much as possible (even IF I could lose my Python over 20 times before going bust). BUT considering the possible PvP outcry, the fact that people can throw away ships seems like a good thing. Or, at least, better than the situation where money is hard to come by and losing your ship hurts too much - in that case, players with too much time on their hands would still amass vast numbers of credits and not care at all if they get blown up, while cries of ganking would be even louder and serious... Heck, everyone would start comparing how much money they are making doing A vs doing B. This, of course, happens even now, but the impact of those discussions can usually boil down to "meh, so do profitable action A for a while, then you can do B without a care in the world". This means while proper piracy doesn't really pay, it can be enjoyed by all (both pirates and traders).
Also, I've missed both those CGs with the massive payouts and I seriously wish I didn't. I'm still doing the Sothis money grind and it's a constant stress on my sanity.
Simply put - making credits shouldn't be the end-goal in a game as (potentially) vast as ED. Credits should be a soft-gate for content, so new players don't go piloting Anacondas without knowing what they're doing. But once someone knows how the game mechanics work then money shouldn't be any kind of barrier any more (or a temporary inconvenience at most).
