no .. that statement is lazy. On-page stuff like heading structure, title, semantic tagging, inner links, etc can be made all easier by wordpress + plugins .. the rest will require work depending on what you're trying to rank for and what your goals are.
If you're the only person in the world selling "evil unicorns" then you will rank on search engines for selling evil unicorns with only putting up a page that says "I sell evil unicorns"
If your market is more competitive, you will need a strategy of content, social, links, etc. to be on top.
Wordpress is only "seo-friendly" not instant SEO.
