That is exactly his role, he is a spiritual teacher, and a source of knowledge, of which there are 3 - guru, sadhu and sastra.
This is entirely your opinion, your conjecture about his motivation, and it comes off as critical even though you say you have some respect for him. You did not ask him the question, so if he answers someone else with his own intelligence informed by sastra (qualification of madhyama and uttama bhaktas) why pick it apart? Why not check for yourself and see if he's right? Find the source yourself... And really, it is not at all unprecedented for a sadhu who has consumed and internalized a large amount of siddhanta to speak the siddhanta without reference. I'm sure you do it all the time. It is a diversion to make this topic about your issue with his style of presentation.