That isn't how 3D modelling works at all. Not to mention that one of the major examples where they compared meshes admitted they scaled the models [1], so it's not even a direct 1:1 comparison.
That's a blanket statement that's meaningless.
Uniformly scaling a model, which is what the post you linked to admitted, is a perfectly fine method of comparison. If I uniformly shrink an object, that does not change the nature of the object other than to make it smaller or larger.
If I take an apple, produce a copy, shrink it, then compare it, the apple is still the same apple.
Now Palworld has changed some very minor details with some of these models but you'd really need to be committed to mental gymnastics to justify the changes between these models as anything but the weakest of attempts to dodge a lawsuit.
I'm more than happy to concede that models could have been largely 'traced', with the original models being used as reference images. That is hardly the lift-and-shift theft that is being claimed by many online, though.
So, when a human does that, that's an infringement.