They clearly qualified it with "Not without steel reinforcement."

Anyways the difference in labor costs between wood and reinforced brick would be massive in LA county not to mention the additional cost of materials.

Massive not. Italy has mostly buildings made with non-bearing walls made of bricks. The bearing skeleton is made with "reinforced concrete" which is essentially columns and architraves made of poured cement with inside steel bars. Clearly we should not force the whole US to drop wood. Very hot an dry regions like LA might be a good place to switch away from wood.