They seem to be suggesting if you amortize the die cost and speed consequences of electrical to optical, you can then get pretty much distance-independent speeds (obviously not, but lets limit ourselves to the distance of chip carriers inside a single chassis) interconnect at good rates in optical, with low interference and free routing within the bend radius of the light guides.

Maybe I misread it. Maybe the optical component is for something else like die stacking so you get grids of chips on a super carrier, with optical interconnect.