I am not advocating moderate loads throughout the block, only not going so heavy in the first week(particularly) that it serves as inducing more fatigue than stimulation with week two heavier still. In general, though, the best executed, results producing schemes I’ve seen have been mostly submaximal with only week 3 or 4 (in a 4 week intensification scheme) should be performed at maximal levels.
If all you are doing is lifting, then the intensities can be increased somewhat in my opinion but when you have others stressors/high intensity elements present in the program, being a bit conservative is more beneficial to obtaining results in both the lifting and the more important sport performance.
I disagree that you need to lift close to maximal levels on a regular basis. This so compromises your ability to recover that the other elements in the program have to suffer. I think he’s doing more than just lifting. If he was only lifting than perhaps the weights could be pushed up a bit more but I would not suggest by much.
Low volume and low load should come at the end of a cycle for sure but the volume can also be dropped throughout the block to obtain the overreaching effect. In some blocks the volume might stay constant for 2-3 weeks but the ones I’ve typically used have dropped off throughout.
Obviously many roads to Rome.