The point is that some metrics are useful tools, and that some managers are tools.

To be more specific about metrics, something that measures what your users care about, or is beneficial to your company is actually useful. Sometimes the most important metric is a zero or one, which is did you ship? Measuring commit frequency seems intrinsically useless.

my guess is they're trying to say that the person was in the right, their managers in the wrong (and they are a manager themselves) and if they run into the situation again, they know what to look for. Also, in the event this person is beating themselves up over the situation (thinking this is the norm, thinking that maybe they made the wrong decision, etc.) it would appear it is intended to put them at ease that they did the smart thing and it isn't like this on every team.