The traditional joints held up very well and even beat the engineered connectors in some cases. Additionally one must be careful with screws and fasteners: if they’re not used according to spec, they may be significantly weaker than expected. The presented screws had to be driven in diagonally from multiple positions to reach the specified strength; driving them straight in, as the average DIYer would, would have resulted in a weak joint.
Glue is typically used in traditional joinery, so less glue would actually have a negative effect.