That gave me pause too, and this is the best explanation I could think of for why the author brought it up: The anthropic principle can explain why we find ours

That gave me pause too, and this is the best explanation I could think of for why the author brought it up: The anthropic principle can explain why we find ourselves in a universe exactly this old, because billions of years earlier the conditions weren't yet suitable for life. If you mistakenly think the anthropic principle is making a fixed prediction about the point at which suitability began, then you might think that discovery of an earlier period of suitability would invalidate the principle, but of course it does not.