I understand his point, but using 'dd' allows you to set a buffer size which can make cloning a bunch faster. It also has great progress reporting (status=progress) which is really useful for the things dd is usually used for.
And even if you use it without it being needed, it's not a big deal. It doesn't add much overhead, if any.
By the way, on versions that don't support status=progress (like busybox and the BSD versions), you can periodically send a USR1 signal to get a progress update.
And even if you use it without it being needed, it's not a big deal. It doesn't add much overhead, if any.