I feel like if he actually said that it would make it's way into the article right?
It's kinda the same for "Nintendo was worried TOTK marketing was not resonating with fans, which prompted them to fast track a gameplay demonstration to clarify its mechanics" thread that was there recently.
This was in the article:
"Another hiccup came when the second trailer dropped in February, and the team noticed a lack of enthusiasm. “People had not gotten their heads around the gameplay elements or where the fun might be,” Aonuma said. Nintendo decided to feature Aonuma
explaining the game’s concepts in a 13-minute demonstration, which did the trick."
The last part about Nintendo decided to do a gameplay video is from Washington Post, not something Aonuma said. It does not explicitly mean that they had to do gameplay video because of fans response, it was still February and they knew they have not shown everything in detail, including Fuse for the first time. Aonuma just says that lack of enthusiasm for trailer #2 was because they have not detailed it yet.