You have to look at it from a marketing point of view.
When trying to sell side games, there's no way you want them to sound like skippable 'spin offs'. As the director, Nomura knows that his opinion is going to influence people, so he will make sure to highlight their importance to the series in interviews held to promote the game.
Now they're trying to sell a numbered title for the first time in 8 years, so they're trying to highlight how weighty and exciting that is, and how long people have been waiting, and how much better and more important this title is going to be than anything else that has been released lately.
This is why I think you always have to take into consideration the context of when and why an interview is being held instead of just taking words at face value.