He's saying that PHP's ability to dynamically instantiate classes by using class-names stored in string variables obviates the need for more complex factory based patterns.

Schlepping around a particular factory instance is akin to keeping track of the class one desires to instantiate, which is easily achieved in PHP through the use of a string.

A lot of the canonical design patterns are applicable only for harshly statically typed languages such as Java, for dynamic languages like PHP many of those patterns are no longer applicable or useful. It's still quite possible to be a cargo cult programmer even if you happen to be using highfalutin' GoF design patterns.