I have no idea why you'd read that when the cells are the same size as before.
I don't see TFA mentioning either directly, but there are some hints that one of the two (or both) did happen: Number of layers increased from 176 to 232 (that explains 32% increase) but bits/chip area has doubled (total density increased by 100%). Where does the rest of this increase coming from, you reckon?
https://www.anandtech.com/show/17509/microns-232-layer-nand-...
A bunch of the cost is test and packaging which is constant so there will be a small cost per bit reduction. But the new chip will cost significantly more to manufacture than a 512Gbit device. No free lunch.