No, it's literally - by the discussion partner's own estimation[0] - cutting the motor size in half. That's not a tiny improvement, it's a half-weight reduction for the motor. It's not as big as I naively estimated from a google search, but it's still half the weight. That's the kind of thing engineers chase as a benchmark and rarely every actually achieve. It's great.

But also, I reject your attempt to reframe the discussion as strictly car focused. OP specifically mentioned flight. Which doesn't necessarily mean it was all about aircraft - the article is about cars after all. But it certainly doesn't mean that the conversation was strictly about cars, either.

[0]: I've googled this claim and I'm willing to accept it, but the only sources for it I could find were subtractive estimations from youtubers whom had pulled apart the motors. Even additional claims from forums and whatnot seemed to trace back to one of those video sources. It would be nice if Tesla would deign to discuss some specificiations themselves, but if there's an actual official source, I have yet to see it. And, for what it's worth, the motors that I've seen referenced were all for the rear motor that I understand to be the smaller motor in Teslas. Either way, I don't doubt the 70 lbs estimate is far off, so it's moot.