At least he was honest and didn’t write a mediocre LOR. Maybe he sees the application process as competitive because it really is?
I worked with a guy who used to recommend the military to all his son’s friends. He saw it as a way to lessen the competition his son would face when applying to college.
When touring LAC I frequently ended up talking to other parents who seemed to cover the whole spectrum from those obsessed with stats, those with the most amazing kids any college would be lucky to have attend, the guy who just talked about how much this was all going to cost him, to other parents like me who never attended college who walked around amazed at the opportunities potentially available to their kids. I experienced much the same at large universities.