I'm giving my best understanding of his position. And I didn't read his book, only some (admittedly very detailed and technical) blog posts. So I might well be filling in some gaps and misremembering what exactly he wrote. But that's useful too surely - if the evidence he presents in his book and elsewhere works as evidence for this steelmanned argument.

I think he may be clarifying or simplfying his position, but this is the same impression I have from sources that reference Taubes, such as the movie Fathead.