«[...] an encoder is not a state machine. Meaning that there need not, and probably should not be, a single base encoder.» This is not the meaning of "State mac

«[...] an encoder is not a state machine. Meaning that there need not, and probably should not be, a single base encoder.» This is not the meaning of "State machine". What I think the author means is "Two encoders for the same video codec can and should be two different state machine", or simply "The developers of video codec encoders have many different algorithmic choices, both in video quality and encoding performance".