Yes, the author also says that visually closer elements should be brighter, even in dark mode. If you use pure black for the overall background and dark gray as the fill-in color for frames/highlights, this agrees with the author's recommendation and still leaves you with plenty of contrast to play with.

I also agree that pure white should almost never be used in dark mode - it's usually reserved there as a highlight color, for critical warnings that should immediately alert the user.