I didn't say he can't get licensed music. He just has to cope and deal with the obstacles it brings. The cost, and lack of control. If the music producer decides they don't want their music in the game anymore, he has to abide by their rules. This is what he is currently dealing with. It's always risky becoming dependent on a 3rd party for an aspect of your game. And sometimes you get screwed over. Coders vanishing. Writers quitting. Artists getting hired by someone else. And music producers deciding they don't want their music used anymore.
Chasing the highest quality doesn't hurt the game in the classic sense. Obviously, higher quality generally = better game. What I mean by him chasing quality is hurting the game is in regards to the prospects of this game ever being completed. It's really, really hard if not impossible to get both high quantity + high quality and deliver in a reasonable timeframe.
And he is trying to do this with with 2 games that are both supposed to be very long, adding even more difficulty. Like I mentioned last year, he is basically trying to combine Pinkcakes quantity and Philly's quality. And do that for 2 games at the same time. A daunting task, to say the least.