You're agreeing with his point. The plan was not to orbit Mars.
However, your language sounds like they were going to circularize at 'about the distance of mars', which they were not (that too would have required a burn months from now). The plan they'd previously briefed was an elliptical orbit where the aphelion is ~Mars' orbitial distance (~1.5AU) and the perihelion is still at Earth's orbital distance (~1AU). However, with the extended burn, they got the aphelion up to 2.61 AU.
However, your language sounds like they were going to circularize at 'about the distance of mars', which they were not (that too would have required a burn months from now). The plan they'd previously briefed was an elliptical orbit where the aphelion is ~Mars' orbitial distance (~1.5AU) and the perihelion is still at Earth's orbital distance (~1AU). However, with the extended burn, they got the aphelion up to 2.61 AU.