By the last paragraph, I get what he's saying (too many companies build something they'd never pay for in hopes that there's an audience that will), but I think he's arguing two different - but vital - aspects of testing.

There's dogfooding and there's finding users at all levels of experience (both in internet proficiency and experience with the type of software/service you've built) who have little/no incentive to use your platform over the competition. The best apps I have come across have had their community managers leverage me and ask repeatedly for my feedback and how to make things better. What else am I seeing going on in the market? How intuitive is that action? If this tool didn't exist tomorrow, where would I go and why? If a user isn't willing to take the time to answer these questions, move on to the next person.

Reaching out to the right people here means free advertising and loyalty, in addition to fixing the problems you don't come across internally.