Choosing the mobile website over the app is one way of keeping the relationship from going any further. A website can't ask you for your contact list like an app can.
That feature was designed but never built, so his point still stands. In my ideal world sites can do that stuff, they just have to ask, and users can always say no.
eugh, I hate it when sites do that. I'd be really angry if I found out that a friend of mine had been sharing my contact details with strangers without my permission.