Unless you want to write a ton of transformers, your models will likely know about your database design. If only by virtue of having the same properties.
I think the parent is objecting to the fact that annotations spray this "external" information right in the middle of the controller/model. FWIW, decent tools let you put this info in separate configuration files instead of code annotations, "decoupling" it from the code.
A controller should not know about routes.
A model should not know about database design.