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I think he means that they work under controlled conditions, but it's hard to replicate them in the real world environment. Can't go to most restaurants, can't make a lot of dishes, can't do social gatherings, definitely need to cook yourself everything you eat, and so on.

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That applies to any diet though, if the advice is good, but people don't follow it, it's not the fault of the diet. The point is he is singling out low carb diets as if it's the diet itself that is at fault, not just the common problem of people not following through on a diet regimen.

It doesn't apply to any diet. For example, a simple caloric restriction diet might simply require that you leave half of everything you're served on your plate and never have seconds. This would allow you to eat anything in any social context, just not as much. A low carb diet would require you to forego the cake and ice cream entirely at your own child's birthday, etc.

Having a bite of cake is still low carb.

Is it any harder than having a strong food allergy? It's only difficult when you're not used to it. (55 lbs on Paleo, kept it off, zero calorie counting, in fact downright gluttonous sometimes.)

It is far easier to psychologically comply with a concrete immediate severe allergy diet than a vague "analog" weight loss diet.

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