I think that he was referring to how BRP/Runequest/CoC and such use a roll-under percentile system. With that being what he is used to, a roll-over percentile system would appear to be counter-intuitive.
However, to those who are used to a roll-over percentile system, a roll-under percentile system seems counter-intuitive. It just depends on the person's point of view....
Just want to make a comment about MERP. I have never actually played MERP nor even owned or read a copy of the game, ever. One of the goals of HARP was to create a lighter set of rules (within the ICE family of games) that would work much like an introductory system in much the same way that MERP did for ICE all those years ago (the first actual ICE product I ever bought was Rolemaster Companion I - not the rules themselves.... hehe).
While HARP isn't RM Lite, it is related to RM - RM2 more so than the current version. I want to also make a quick statement about the term "lite" when used to describe a version/set of rules as in "RM Lite". The word "Lite" gives the impression that things were removed from the original system to make the Lite system, that it is incomplete or perhaps not fully playable.
HARP was not made by removing bits from another system (i.e. Rolemaster), HARP was made by my taking a look at some of the core concepts of Rolemaster, stripping them down to their basics, and then reworking them from the ground up.
Now... back to your regularly scheduled flamewar....