About the pulled pork reference , I have had pulled pork in Arizona Phoenix where I work now. The unripe jackfruit do not taste like that. Just an "unripe" taste that's all. Unripe fruit has lot of milky sticky liquid oozing from the hives inside the fruit.
In its unripe form , its used for frying , something like potato sticks lookalike. In its ripe form its mixed with beef and made into squishy form. Keralites eat a lot of beef,unlike other states in India. (where beef is banned)
The seeds of the jackfruit , ( a single fruit has hundreds of seeds ) is used to make curry mixed with sour mango and sun dried shrimp. The outer casing of the jackfruit is re purposed as food to the cows. The jackfruit wood is good for carpentry and is used to make door , almirahs , windows in Kerala homes.
Probably the author is just an author. Might not have experience with the real fruit and do not know much about India as is with many western countries.