The thing is, if he'd been doing some of these things for the past 20 years leading up to retirement, perhaps he wouldn't be needing to do it now.
I mean, more power to him for arranging his lifestyle so he can work less. But I do think it's kinda strange these strategies aren't often advocated for middle-aged people who might be looking at a very sparse retirement if they don't act immediately and are instead placed in the realm of "what to do when you want to retire but don't quite have the funds".