Different photographers have different needs. Everything Jeff Cable said made perfect sense from the point of view of a successful (and reasonably wealthy) professional photographer.
Professional sports and wildlife photographers will usually have access to ultra-expensive long primes such as 600mm F4 or 800mm F5.6. Combined with their need to process and transmit images rapidly, it makes sense the have a relatively low MP camera.
But for most amateurs, unless they are very wealthy, the reality is that they can’t afford these long primes - they are generally using shorter and more affordable lenses such as 100-400mm zooms, which necessitate the need for heavier cropping. Also amateurs in most cases just don’t have the close access that a press pass provides. So many would argue that more MP and more cropping is often the only solution.