I'm extremely skeptical of this claim. (Though I didn't listen to the podcast, sorry, audio formats annoy me.) The CDC recommends the use of diluted bleach for disinfection of surfaces (http://www.cdc.gov/hicpac/disinfection_sterilization/6_0disinfection.html). It's recommended for cleanup of mold and mildew by the Colorado State Extension (e.g., http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/columncc/cc0802.html). The evidence I can find quite uniformly indicates that bleach is an effective, broad-spectrum disinfectant (and on par with or broader spectrum than acid-based disinfectants).
I guess it's possible that in this specific venue there's a problem with it, and maybe your podcast covers this. But I don't think you can justify the claim that you're doing "nothing."
Sorry if the audio format annoys you, but it's clearly explained in the podcast.
And as far as the buffering qualities of water go, that's quite a discrepancy ! I listened to the podcast (again!) and there are no mentions of using RO or DI water. Maybe it was a mistake on his part. Maybe he told himself "that's good enough for homebrew applications". Maybe he "improvised" that part of the interview and didn't think it through. I don't know. He did not say which pH you should be targetting after acidification either.
What I do know is that all of my beers (except one) have been shelf stable without off-flavours after bottling and using the acidified bleach method. Anecdotal evidence, so it doesn't prove a thing (and I drink my beer fast), but as Charlie explains in the podcast cleaning is very, very important for the homebrewer as to not leave organic material that can harbour bacteria, mold and wild yeast in important quantities. He even goes to say that sanitizing is more of an insurance policy on your cleaning. That's debatable, but it's true that if you pitch healthy yeast at an appropriate rate, the small amount of bugs that might or might not be present on your clean equipment have a far lesser chance of taking hold.
Moral of the story: bleach, does it work ? Yes. Can it be used without making your beer taste like band-aids ? Yes. Is it the best performing thing on the market right now ? Not a chance. If I were to brew keeping beers (6 months plus), I'd use the modern stuff too (StarSan, Iodophor). The reason I started with bleach is that none of the lhbs that I knew of when I started with the hobby carried StarSan or Iodohpor. All they did carry was that horrible pink powder that you have to rinse with hot water. I stumbled about the podcast, gave it a go and it worked.