Imho that quote says more about what parts of games John Carmack has mostly worked on during his life than it actually says anything about storytelling in games.
The guy is so deep in code engineering that sometimes other, more nuanced, details can be seemingly totally lost on him.
Yeah, I have a lot of respect for Carmack as a developer/engineer but I doubt you’d want him in charge of actually designing your game. I’m sure he’d admit as much.
"Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important."