re: Stock vs Bond allocation in portfolio?

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Doesn't have to be. Value cost averaging on a strict periodic basis. If you allocate the appropriate amount in bonds (more required depending on volatility of security), you can still do quite well and beat 'buy and hold'.

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Except he was describing something completely different altogether where he kept it 80/20 until the market crashed and presumably bottomed out, then used the 20% invested in bonds to buy stocks at their lows and essentially reallocate to a 100/0.

His approach is based on adjusting allocation at a specific and ideal point in time after an infrequent event (crash) that is unpredictable in its timing (housing crash occurred about 1 year after Dotcom crash recovered completely; almost 7.5 years since housing crash
recovery) as well as its severity, duration, time to recover, and the combination all three (Black Monday’s was more sudden with the sharpest decline but recovered quickly; Housing crash had the largest drawdown; and Dotcom lasted the longest and took the longest to recover). The only part that isn’t just hoping for some lucky timing is the predetermined allocation change the only works well if there is lucky timing.

What you’re describing (value cost averaging) is nothing like that since the “timing” portion is relates to the natural variation on a frequent basis with a predetermined target allocation and return strategy that keeps those targets based on what has happened not what one hopes will happen. I think dynamic rebalancing makes more sense (e.g., maximizing time in the market by putting as much in when you can as you can, but putting more towards underweighted assets to keep the target allocation instead of manually rebalancing at some specified time) Regardless, whether dollar cost averaging, value cost averaging, or dynamic rebalancing, these are more about taking advantage of the conditions at the time of the investment than about timing the investment so it occurs under the ideal conditions.

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But what do I know?

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I’m guessing you know a lot above investing in general, but I don’t think you know a lot about the strategy the OP was considering specifically.