Huh? One is NES, the other is SNES and I happen to be a fan of both...What is the reference here?
I think what he's getting at is that for both soundtracks the composers realised the limitations of the sound hardware they were working with at the time, and didn't use any compositional styles that would exeed those limits (like it would be hard to pull off Star Fox's soundtrack successfully on a NES soundchip).
Fact is, the worse you think the non-arranged part of KHII's soundtrack is, the harder it becomes to defend Shimomura gets all the glory by hiding behind Wada's arrangements. Like I said before, whose going to care about a few nice arrangements when they think the majority of the in-game music sounds like crap? In the worst case, Shimomura would only get (in your eyes misplaced) credit for those eight arranged tracks with people saying they're the only good music on the soundtrack, but that would still leave a lot of mediocre tracks to be accounted for.
Even if you believe there are objective standards of taste, you still have acknowledge that it is ultimately the buyers of either games or their soundtracks who determine whether a composer stayes in business. That means that the fact that Ito is still getting hired on a regular basis by S-E translates to there being a large audience still wanting to hear his music. Just look at how much work he's done both related and unrelated to S-E; it would be impossible for him to get this far by just relying on arrangers to make his work sound good.
You could be of the opinion that his fans have crap taste, and curse the fact that they're so large in number, but that's about it. He's not actually holding back others like Sekito from taking the spotlight, that's just the perspective of someone who dislikes his music and doesn't want others to waste their time arranging it. What's holding Sekito from getting a composing job on a high-profile title is either a result of his own choices (he'd rather arrange than compose) or the fact that there are not enough fans (potential buyers) around to justify giving him such a job. Even then, I believe S-E would give him the chance if he asked for it (they've given others such chances in the past). If not, he's free to say 'screw it' and go solo or take up another profession. Since that hasn't happened, I guess he's feeling happy where he is, whether fans of his compositions want him there or not.