Then again, the Swiss are also crazy people who say nonante for 90, instead of being French and saying quatre-vingt-dix (4x20+10).
That's not crazy, it's just common sense that for some reason the Académie Française, the authority on the French language, refuses to have.
On the other hand, if people on the street do typically say nonante-sept for that, then I agree that the Academy should recognize the change. As far as I know though, this is not the case at all, and septante/huitante/nonante sound strange to actual French people.
Either way, the GP was definitely being sarcastic.
The Académie Française was in favor of septante, octante and nonante ("octante" is not used anywhere today, by the way, "huitante" is sometimes used in parts of Switzerland but the rest of the French-speaking world uses "quatre-vingts") from the moment it was created, and National Education also recommended these terms until 1945.
They just never really became widespread and eventually completely died out in France (Belgium also uses septante and nonante) but the Académie did try to promote them.
I'm not sure why one would think the contrary as the Académie has always been quite progressist, probably too much for their suggestions to actually enter usage I guess.