No, you're right, GOOGLE will take the device identifier, but him talking about how he would need to store it, and especially for channels where he talks about user names and passwords really makes me think that he thinks he personally has to do it, with his own backend storing it. (edit: The point is, that he doesn't HAVE to do it this way. You can, and it gives you more control, but you can let Google do it all. It's never anonymous with anyone though.)

Apple knows which devices have the app installed. They would be able to link that back to the device if it was demanded, even if it is a bit more obscured.

Now GrapheneOS the privacy based Android OS is calling them out

https://bsky.app/profile/grapheneos.org/post/3lt2prfb2vk2r

He really must be thinking just about himself, and not that Apple had the info.

Just figured I'd add Apples own documentation as well

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/usernotifications/registering-your-app-with-apns

Apple Push Notification service (APNs) must know the address of a user’s device before it can send notifications to that device. This address takes the form of a device token unique to both the device and your app. At launch time, your app communicates with APNs and receives its device token, which you then forward to your provider server. Your server includes that token with any notifications it sends.