You cannot paraphrase a section, the sections are meant to be read with entirety of the document....this is a common trap that people fall into.
Neither I nor Skybrary are paraphrasing the section, we're quoting it. It's not particularly useful to know that the pilot is ultimately the one responsible for not hitting something.
But it is useful to know, as a pilot, that if ATC issues a direct routing, PANS-ATM requires the controller to have verified that the level assigned is terrain safe, in the same way that she would if she had issued a vector.