I really do believe that, as quoted, they are "stripping away all the heritage and history of good playing card design" and that they "removed everything [they] could".
In the process, however, they came up with an end result that's very, very close to unusable as a pack of cards, something that only a designer could love. Seriously - strip away all the GOOD playing card design, and what the hell do you think you'll be left with? Simply put, BAD playing card design! It's pretty in a Helvetica sort of way... (Yeah, I watched the documentary film last night!)