I am surprised that you drew that conslusion from the review. I got the impression that iPhone and Samsung flagships consistently beat the Pixel 3 in daylight and normal light shots. They just have better hardware. He stated multiple times that iPhone is a better representation of the actual scene. However the night mode is obviously best in class (given nothing in the frame is moving).
My comment was more a remark on the de-noise Apple's default camera app applies.
Again, I'd check out that image I linked to. At 100% zoom the ground detail is quite literally erased from the iPhone X image, to the point where it looks like a stylized art filter was applied.
The Pixel at least retains detail in such places (also, for example, on the roof tiles). Link: https://images.anandtech.com/galleries/6731/G_Pixel3_IMG_201...
None are perfect of course -- Samsung loves them some sharpening, and the Pixels images have a slightly garish blue cast I'm not a fan of.